JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Alcatraz Incident
by Pragmaticpessimist
Summary: The Speedwagon Foundation assumes that it handles all incidents of Stand related crime, but when it misses a case it falls into the laps of people like Marshall. Who, with his newly assembled 'team', sets out from Alcatraz Prison in order to stop the nefarious plans of a group shrouded in mystery, and along the way get justice for a girls family. OC centric entirely OC cast
1. Chapter 1

1992- Alcatraz Prison, San Francisco, California

Marshall dove behind another pillar as a grey blur impacted the spot where he had been standing a moment ago. He popped up when he heard the tell tale groaning from Jude Cardinal that meant that he had exhausted 『TURBO LOVER』, and while he still hadn't figured out the full extent of the stands abilities he knew that the groaning meant Jude had started cramping up. Marshall popped up from behind cover with 『FOUGHT THE LAW』loaded and cocked and quickly fired all seven bullets, they flew forward enveloped in a blue hue before all of them arced up towards the upper levels. Marshall ducked behind cover and began slamming more bullets into his gun, he heard one hit a metal railing, one solidly nailed concrete, but the rest seem to fly true judging by Jude's incredibly loud, " FUUUUCK"

Marshal decided to l yell out, " We've been at this for 10 minutes, why don't you just surrender now?"

"Like hell I'm going to surrender to you," Jude responded as Marshall heard the tell tale sound of wind rushing that prompted him to dive out of the way for what seemed like the hundredth time, this encounter at least.

Just in time too as the pillar exploded into chunks of rock as another projectile impacted. Jude spoke again," You and that willey bastard in the FBI think that all of us should be controlled and monitored, I refuse to bow to you and give this up!"

Marshall shook his head in exasperation as he crawled behind another pillar , '_This kid's so high on his power he doesn't see what was happening ...well not that I know what their plan is but I know it isn't good.'_ As he pulled the hammer back on『FOUGHT THE LAW』Marshall yelled back, "Kid, what your involved in right now is why Graffin began trying to keep tabs on you."

"Bullshit," he heard Jude spit," You just don't want anyone else to have power. You just want to be the only one so you can enforce your will on everyone else."

'_Isn't that your reason?_,' Marshall wondered as he popped off another six shots eliciting another yell of annoyance from Jude. Suddenly Jude yelled, "FUCK THIS, we got what we came for."

The sound that accompanied『TURBO LOVER』started once again causing Marshall to try reloading his gun quicker, but when he finally came out from the partially decimated cover there was nothing."Damn it," Marshall swore as he took off down the long hallway of Alcatraz for the nearest staircase.

...

'_Why the hell is the nearest staircase so far away?'_, Marshall pondered as he struggled to get his breathing under control. If he had known getting thrown from one floor up would be this difficult to undo he would have just tried to climb the smooth wall. His breath finally leveled out as he shouldered the door open and stumbled out onto the original floor he had been on. He looked around before pulling out a napkin with a hastily drawn map on it and heading down the hallway with is pistol held in one hand. The hallway was dead quiet aside from the slight squeaking of his black shoes and the subtle rustling of his jacket against his dress shirt, at least it was until two people in white lab coats came bursting out of one of the metal doors. Marshall quickly brought his gun up and aimed, but stopped when both of the scientist were imitating _7-HQ-21976. _ It was a visceral display that had him gagging, and for the first time thankful that seasickness had made him throw up on the way over. But after one of the scientists, god both of it's ears were gone, had successfully separated the lower jaw of the other scientist and gouged out the eyes the living one turned to Marshall. He very quickly fired his entire chamber each bullet hitting dead center on the body...not that it did shit though. Marshall quickly found out that apparently the human body no longer needs intact vital organs to function since he was damn near positive that he hit the heart at least five of the six. "What the…," He didn't get to finish his thought because he beset upon by whatever the hell this person was.

Marshall made like any sensible cop and pistol whipped the the living corpse once, twice, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, and on the tenth time the thing finally let go. The corpse fell to the ground with a now caved in skull and Marshall through heavy breaths spit out," Take-That-you-"

Marshall stopped short when he noticed a strange blue beetle with pincers clamped on the back of the neck bite down harder and the should have been corpse began to move again." Oh hell no," exclaimed Marshall before diving into the room the scientist had come out of and slamming the door shut.

He locked the door and breathed a sigh of relief until he heard a faint buzzing noise behind him. He grimaced and spun around slowly with his eyes widening with each degree he rotated because of a giant buzzing blue cloud that was floating above what looked like a corpse. Marshall inched forward slowly whole reaching for his ammunition, until he realized he only had about 3 more bullets. "Son of a-," he clammed up and cut himself short when the swarm buzzed louder.

The 'corpse', '_god I really can't identify a corpse that's what three people now I've thought are corpses', _shuffled and moved and Marshall got a good look at the boy-man-twenty something or other. He had dirty blonde hair, a half decent complexion, a unique tattoo of a compass pointing south on his shoulder He stopped staring at the sleeping man who was tied to a chair, '_Jesus I somehow made this more awkward," _ and began to inch forward slowly with his hands held placatingly before undoing the straps around the man's wrist as delicately as someone with no medical training can do. The blue swarm consistently buzzed but didn't move to attack, which was good because this was a stand Marshall wasn't sure he could touch with three bullets.

The body stirred and a weak voice spoke," Wh-who?"

"Not whoever did this to you," Marshall retorted trying to assure the kid…..until the swarm began to buzz slightly louder.

" I'm helping, I'm helping, " He hurriedly explained as he finally undid the last restraint and hauled the man to his feet throwing one of his arms over his shoulders, though as he did so he noticed a few of the beetles, or whatever they are, were holding down several of the ghastlier wounds. Preventing bleeding.

He refocused on his new task and slowly inched the door open looking for the last scientist he had hidden from. He was relieved, much to his moral dismay, that the scientist had apparently bashed her head in trying to open the door. He almost opened fire on the blue beetle that came from under the lab quote until a very violent buzzing reminded him not to. He began to down the hallway until a thought suddenly struck him….," Where the HELL is the exit."

* * *

Jason Creed cracked his neck as he walked through the new hole in the wall after Leen. 『MR. EGO』was still a pain in the ass to fight but he was getting used to Leens tactics now, or rather the lack of tactics considering this was now the eighth time they've fought in the past two months. The dust began to settle and Jason summoned 『HERE COMES REVENGE』to his side as the familiar golden body of 『MR. EGO』 and the annoyingly well dressed shadow of Leen came through the dust. "Well, well, well…. It seems as if you little rats have learned some new tricks, isolating Jude and I from each other to play to your strengths."

Jason rolled his eyes and cracked his knuckles,『HERE COMES REVENGE』mimicking the action, " Same thing we've done the last time we fought."

Leen chuckled when, in a violent burst of movement, the much bigger stand exploded towards Jason swinging it's golden fist at him. 『HERE COMES REVENGE』 intercepted the fist with it's own resulting with a large crash of noise, but it seemed that both stands were evenly matched despite the sudden pain exploding in Jason's hand. He grimaced but stood strong in the exchange since he knew Leen was going through the same thing, after all that was his stands ability. Any damage dealt directly to him or his stand by an opponent was then also felt by his opponent, altogether an interesting ability for a former paramedic to have. He was drawn out of his reflection as『MR. EGO』missing a downward punch and sending rock shards flying towards him forcing him to dodge. Leen paused after seeing this and began to laugh." I get it now, it has to be direct contact to use your stands ability."

Jason looked at him slightly annoyed, mostly because his weakness had been figured out, but also because it took this dumbass eight fights of him favoring close ranged combat and avoiding the ranged attacks from any of his compatriots. " What difference does it make it's not like you have any ranged attacks."

Jason picked up on a slight whooshing sound before an explosion of pain ripped through his left calf. He looked down and saw blood already soaking the jeans he was wearing from what looked like shotgun spread impact. He glanced back and saw Jude Priest standing there sweating, but with at least one bullet wound in his shoulder (A tell tale mark Marshall had done his job, the rest being keeping the bastard busy). That small joy quickly passed as he came to terms with the fact he was outnumbered two to one. "Well it looks like the odds are now in our favor why do-GAAAAAHHHH"

Jason spun around to look at Leen who was now screaming in pain with electricity coursing across his body causing him to spasm. 『MR. EGO flew back to its user and an in a flurry slammed it's fists into a now moving pile of rubble sending a bloodied man flying out across the room ending the impromptu electric chair session. Leen flexed for a few seconds working his muscles so they began to move again as the newcomer coughed up some more blood before spitting out," Take that you rat bastard."

Jason smirked despite the hundreds of thoughts running through his head; was the newcomer bad, on his side, or even fighting for himself. His runaway thought train was interrupted by the sound of a horn blaring from outside and Judes harsh voice," Let's go Leen we got what we needed."

Leen turned furious to the newcomer as Jason slowly began to move to the side of the room , "No until I kill this-this-this little-"

"Shut the hell up, you know how Mortis gets," That sentiment seemed to make Leen calm down significantly before he spun around.

Gesturing with his finger he spit," I hope you live so I can kill you for touching me," before going off down the hallway leaving Jason behind.

Jason turned to the newcomer, "Alright, so who are-," But cut himself off when he saw him crawl to his feet and cough up more blood.

His eyes traveled to the torso which had a blossoming bruise forming right where the ribs are, and on one arm he noticed a torn leather strap with electrical burns on both of them. Jason hesitated, but only for a second before his paramedic training kicked in and he rushed forward and helped the man up before taking off down the hallway toward the dock.

"What's your name," Jason asked as they hobbled along.

The man was silent for a time, maybe a minute, before responding,"I-I think it's John Doe."

Jason creased his forehead," What do you mea-," realization hit him like a lightning strike," Ah shit."

* * *

Joy sat on the boat nervously checking her watch as their 'rendezvous time', as Marshall so loved to call it, came nearer and nearer. She had done her job easily, the only people that could have stopped her were easily detained with 『Alice In Chains』and the paperwork hadn't really been hidden at all. She was drawn from her musings by the sound of someone kicking open the door. She turned," Marshall what took you so long," the ending died off slowly as she took in the corpse looking thing that hung over Marshalls shoulder.

"GET THE MEDKIT," Marshall yelled as he hobbled down the dock.

She snapped out of her frozen state and ripped apart the seat that had the medkit inside of it. When she had it she hurried back to Marshall who was laying down the somehow still living body." He passed out exactly two minutes ago and his stand disappeared too."

She nearly froze when he casually mentioned a stand, she had only known of the three villains they were chasing and themselves. Now another one randomly surfaces now, how likely is that to occur that out of all times for another user to pop up one just popped up now. A thought suddenly crossed her mind drawing her away from the odds," Where is Jason?"

Marshall froze as well his eyes wide as dinner plates," Quick, do you have your Walkie Talkie?"

"N-No," she responded confused.

"The entire place is rigged to fill with poison gas, specifically chlorine gas, and the timer was at fifteen minutes...fourteen minutes and twenty five seconds ago," Marshall stood up and climbed back onto the dock.

"Why don't you radio him?"

Marshall reached in his pocket and threw something onto the boat deck, a shattered radio. "『Turbo Lover 』clipped me once when we were going at it."

As he said that there was an unholy shriek and suddenly the sound of the fire alarm going off before the electronically sealed fire door burst open and stumbling out came Jason first hacking his lungs before being followed by a shirtless man with a nasty bruise on his ribs. Both came down the stairs as fast as they could go with the shirtless man falling the last four steps and Jason having to drag him up and help him continue. A second later, with smoke billowing out of Alcatraz Prison, both of them collapsed onto the boat still coughing .

Joy was going to ask a question when an unholy sound, like metal on metal, sounded from around the other side of the prison followed by a dark shape flying across the water. "What the hell happened?," Marshall questioned as he got the boat moving away from the dock and floored it back towards the shore.

Jason finally stopped coughing, " I was investigating the labs and thought I had been stealthy but only a second later was fighting Leen across the prison," he winced as the boat hit a particularly large wave," Eventually though we broke the a wall and encountered him."

Marshall looked annoyed as he always was when Jason gave his abridged briefings, honestly she enjoyed it, but her attention was drawn to the shirtless man in prison pants who was lying on the boat barely moving. She toned out the familiar squabble and turned her attention to the new guy," Whats your name?"

He craned his neck up to look at her before pulling himself up to a sitting position," John Doe."

Joy looked at him for a second before declaring," Bullshit, no way that's your name."

He sneered and pointed at her," Kid, there's like four things I remember: That gold dude tried to kill me, I'm from Chicago, the electric chair, and that name John Doe."

Joy paused for a second before she asked," What do you mean remember, and what the hell do you mean electric chair!?"

Jason sighed as he took over the conversation," He apparently was one of the people brought here for whatever they were doing and somehow survived the attempt to clean shop."

Marshall spoke from the front of the boat," That makes two then, I found this one in a lab with a horde of...something around him."

Jason raised an eyebrow and stood up, and saw the bandaged body," You had a wounded person, AND YOU DIDN'T THINK TO TELL ME?"

"I was confident in our resident nurse's abilities to keep him alive," retorted Marshall from the front of the boat

Jason swore and staggered over to the wounded man and began to check the bandages she and Marshall had applied. He began to reapply several of them which made her incredibly grateful that their intrepid little party had a former paramedic. She was suddenly drawn out of thought when Jason paused while taking off his shirt to, make more bandages she guessed. "Whats up Jason," she asked drawing closer.

He finished unbuttoning his shirt and produced a sheaf of papers that had some blood stains on it. " Leen was gunning it for me and I panicked, and with everything that happened... I... just forgot about them."

Joy's eyes went wide, they had been fighting against this group for about 7 months now (at least that she had been involved with) and had only been able to pick up tidbits of info from talking with some of Jason's...criminal friends, a fact that drove Marshall up a wall. Marshall looked back over his shoulder, no small feat since it 'broke the law', and yelled," YOU GOT EVIDENCE!?"

Jason nodded and Marshall turned back to the bay with a wide grin on his face as he began to head towards the dock. It was the first solid lead their group had gotten, and it brought her that much closer to revenge.

Jason sighed as Marshall finally reached the dock, it had taken an extra twenty minutes since Marshall religiously followed the no wake policy. It was then the next problem came to mind, a problem that really hadn't had in a while," Sooo, how are we getting are unconscious friend here to the car?"

Marshall froze as Joy tentatively spoke," Well...We may have to tell a lie-"

Marshall finished tying the boat to the dock as he said," Nope, I'm not doing it, I can't lie!"

Marshalls yelling got the attention of the dock worker as he began to meander over. Jason and Joy looked panic as Marshall looked downright feverish. Jason heard some movement behind but couldn't remove his eyes, it was like watching a train wreck in slow motion. Terrifying, Tragic, and somehow just completely enthralling, and he knew Joy thought the exact same. It was just like the last time Marshall tried to lie to a police officer, only now they couldn't blame bad mexican food or car sickness. The dock worker spoke to Marshall," So, sonny who are these new fellows you got here."

Jason could see the sweat beading across Marshalls brow, his fingers begin to twitch, and his chest rising and falling faster, but suddenly John's voice spoke up," Sorry old timer, me and my friend here tried to swim to Alcatraz and we made it there, but-."

As John trailed off the dock worker nodded sagely," I've heard that story far to many times, but at least you got a ride on something other than a police boat."

Jason broke out of his stupor first and turned to see John who was smiling wide," I get a feeling you've been on those quite a few times yourself."

The dock worker nodded and chuckled again, bobbing his wrinkled head before grabbing the paperwork Marshall was lamely holding out and walking away. Joy turned to John," What was that?"

John raised an eyebrow," A lie? I mean they are pretty common to hear."

"NO, not that," Joy exclaimed," The whole banter thing and the random scenario he seemed to accept."

John raised an eyebrow," Did none of you notice the board inside of the office we passed on the way in, it had what looked like mugshots all over it and Alcatraz is a fairly popular swimming challenge for people given the prison escape-"

Joy was now wide eyed," How-"

John kept going, "He had a build that was reminiscent of someone who was physically active, and generally the people who work on the docks tend to enjoy boating."

Joy closed her mouth and just stared until Marshall asked," How exactly did you notice all that?"

John raised a finger in the air, " I….have no idea."

Jason snickered and went to go help the other man up, who he just now noticed John had the remnants of Johns shirt thrown over him making it look like he was sleeping. As he got one arm around his shoulder he said," You sound like Marshall identifying a crook, only less condescending."

John snickered and clambered out of the boat and onto the dock before pulling up the rear as they all headed to the car. Jason really was looking forward to having two more allies in this bizarre adventure he had been dragged on, since he had a suspicion that things were going to hit the fan in the very near  
future.

* * *

**STAND STATS**-『FOUGHT THE LAW』

User: Marshall H****

Strength: N/A (Relies on the power of the gun)

Speed: D (Slightly increases speed of bullet)

Range: C (Bullet range increases by a slight amount)

Durability: N/A (It's a gun)

Precision: B (Homes in on target but doesn't actively avoid obstacles)

Potential: D

『FOUGHT THE LAW』is similar to『HERMIT PURPLE』in nature, as it is an effect that occurs whenever Marshall is in contact with a gun associated with law enforcement . The words 'LAW WINS' appear in small print in stripes that cover the gun, at this point Marshall can declare a crime and fire the gun. The bullets then naturally home in on the nearest person who violated the crime, but do not naturally avoid obstacles meaning that if the opponent is behind a wall the bullets will simply collide with the law. To change the crime the gun is focused on Marshall has to reload the gun.

User history: REDACTED


	2. Chapter 2

Joy sat in the awful motel chair staring at the sleeping/unconscious form of the man Marshall had rescued while the rest had headed out to some sort of convenience store for food. She supposed she could be mad about being left behind, but she knew that with her stand she was really just best suited for defense. The door burst open, interrupting her musing, and in an annoyingly familiar fashion Marshall called out," We're Back!"

She smiled at the familiarity and stood up as he tossed her a can of soda," So what's the plan?"

"Well honestly," Marshall started as John maneuvered through the door with a duffel bag and three new shirts slung over his shoulder and Jason following close behind," We are going to discuss that now, because I just found out that 'John' here is also a stand user."

Jason shrugged nonchalantly as he took a seat," I kind of felt like it was implied, I mean I guessed the no name over there was one."

Marshalls eye twitched in reaction," Thats not how this works. You are supposed to explain thoroughly, according to protocol, and-"

"Anyway," Joy interrupted hoping to avoid a fifteen minute lecture on proper protocol," What do the documents tell us, do we finally we know why they are making stand users ."

"Yeah," John said as he came out of the bathroom with a new shirt on, ironically a cheap hawaiian print shirt that made him look Dodgson from Jurassic Park (Though much more muscular)," I wanna know what the next step is."

"The next step is to drop you both off at the nearest hospital," Marshall said nonchalantly as he sat down on the bed and put his back against the headrest.

Johns hands almost instantaneously tightened into fists at the dismissal, and Joy swore she could see sparks going between his fingers as he began to flex them," Excuse me."

Jason sat up as well, eyes showing his confusion," Seconded, What the hell?"

Marshall stared him dead in the eye," It's proper procedure, civilians can't get involved in official business unless they are deputized, it's article 57-HQ4-567 of the Special Occurrence Act. Since neither are deputized we can't keep them with us, not to mention we barely know them."

" Than deputize him," Joy nearly yelled while standing up," He was actually able to hurt Leen, and only three of us aren't going to be able to keep up with these people without-without-"

The words seem to die on her tongue as Jason took over," Marshall, you and I have been, just barely, able to keep up with Leen and Priest when we fight them now, and you also only knew me for two days before you deputized me. We literally met at a murder scene where I was dealing with the survivor"

Joy looked back at John and could definitely see sparks going over his arm and the unkempt furry in his eyes. John looked Marshall dead in the eye and said,," I-literally-don't know much, but I do know that I need to be involved in this…. some part of me is intertwined in this and I want to find out what it is."

Jason gestured to John in exasperation," See he's already willing and...I don't know able or something."

Marshall opened his mouth to rant about the violation of procedure, but a quick glance at the look Joy was giving him made him get up, pull a bible from somewhere in his coat , put one hand into the air as if he was giving an oath, and say," Mr., um, Doe, do you promise to-"

"Yes, yes, yes, whatever the hell I need to say yes to I say yes," John said now sighing and holding a hand to his face, his rage being dismissed.

Marshall looked incredibly annoyed at the lack of procedure, to the point that his eye was twitching, but responded," Fine-"

Joy nearly jumped and activated her stand when a voice suddenly spoke from the bed in front of her," I'm in too."

Everyone turned stared at the injured man as he began to push himself up, with Joy being the first to react," When the hell did you wake up?"

" 'bout the time he," the man said while gesturing to John," was becoming a deputy."

Marshall through his hands up and turned around like a child throwing a tantrum while Jason simply asked," Well what's your name, and please tell me it's more believable than John Doe."

John flipped Marshall off while the man gave a devilish smirk," Krokus, Seth Krokus."

Marshall rubbed his temple in annoyance and turned back around before asking, "Why the hell do you wanna get involved?"

Seth swung his legs off the bed and Joy rushed to help him stand he was up, he looked Marshall dead in the eye with a wicked smirk," Becasue...I made a promise I wasn't able to keep and I owe it to h- them to do something."

Marshall's face went from annoyance to resignation in the span of about two seconds before saying,"Since we are ignoring all forms of procedure... congrats, you're now deputized."

Joy smiled a little bit, '_They finally have help-other people that are capable of beating him'_. She was drawn out of her thoughts when Jason asked," Soooooo, what's your story, what do you know rather?"

"I'll answer that, but first off what the hell is a stand?"

Marshall went to answer but paused, a thought entering his mind, before turning to John and exclaiming," WHY DID YOU NEVER ASK THAT?"

John put his hands up and looked incredibly confused," I don't know, I just...kinda..knew that it was mine and what it was."

Marshall looked beyond aggravated while Seth just look confused, so she took over the conversation," A stand is the personification of your fighting spirit, it represents your life energy. So kind of who you are in a way ."

There was a slight silence until Seth spoke up," So my fighting spirit is a swarm of bugs?"

"How do you know what your stand is?" Jason questioned.

"I...got shot with some weird thing, like a golden gun but it didn't shoot bullets" Seth said holding his head," and my first thought was just rage and fear at getting shot and...this swarm erupted from nowhere. After that...well it gets hazy, but I remember getting hit with a dart and my world just going dark. Then I woke up in a closed cell with no windows-and a heavy metal door then the experiments started."

Seth went quite staring off into space after leaving off which prompted Jason to quickly pull the papers out and spread them out on the bed in order to change the subject. "This is what we found in Alcatraz," He picked up a piece of paper," They were were creating stand users, but instead of recruiting them they were for some project called Living Colour. That's all I can gather because the rest of the stuff written down is some science I don't understand."

Marshall stepped back into the conversation," We also were able to identify several unique numbers," He gestured to three numbers written down on a stained post it note," and though we are unsure of what the numbers ar-"

"They're addresses," John cut in suddenly his eyes brimming with something Joy couldn't place," the first one is in Nevada, the second is in Kentucky, and the third is in New York."

Marshall's eyes went wide," Why do you know that? I mean how the hell would you know that?"

"I-I-I don't know, It was just there after seeing the numbers."

Marshall cast a look laced with doubt at John, but Jason now took control of the conversation back by gesturing over the papers and pulling another one out," This is the only other one we were able to comprehend the details but it still doesn't tell us what they were trying to accomplish. It seems to be referring to a stand, but it's not a stand that anybody associated with the organization has."

"Overall, a majority of the papers describe several processes that went into studying the nature of stands, but not the abilities of stands which is interesting," Marshall interjected coming out of his frustration," From that we can assume there was something about the stands existence that had them invested...That was all we had, but now that we have these... addresses we will be heading to the one in Nevada tomorrow."

Jason yawned loudly before smiling tiredly," All right, everyone rest up."

"I'm gonna go take a smoke," John said gruffly as he maneuvered his large frame out the door.

Joy looked at the door with conflicting emotions, she had seen something in Johns eyes that she was incredibly familiar with. That image of lost emotion looking for a direction, it was exactly how she had been after the...incident. All of her feelings had nowhere to go and nothing to be directed to, and John's eyes had the same look in them. She quietly got up and followed him as Marshall and Jason began to talk to Seth, though Jason sent her a nod as she went outside .

She made it outside and found John leaning over the rails attempting to light a cigarette, his gruff voice spoke out," What do you want kid."

"You could use my name to start with," She responded, already being irritated.

He glanced at her after lighting the cigarette and taking a drag from his cigarette," The name that you never told me, and nobody mentioned."

She paused for a brief second in embarrassment,"...Sorry, my names Joy, Joy Jordan."

John squinted at her for second before offering her a cigarette from the package," Sounds familiar...not that I can remember from where."

She chuckled at the self deprecating humor before sobering up," How are you taking this?"

"This?"

"All of this," she responded spreading her arms wide gesturing to the motel," The stands, the operation, the assholes who run it all."

John was silent for a little bit staring off into the night sky," I guess I'm doing alright, it's odd though...there's just nothing when I try to reach back for stuff."

"So why is this all easy for you to accept?" Joy responded.

"That's exactly what I mean, I understand this situation and I don't know why," he snubbed his cigarette to punctuate his emotion," Any normal person should be shocked, startled, and completely confused but I'm not and I don't know why."

Joy looked at him as he angrily took another cigarette and lit it, before leaning back over the railing. He had this look in his eyes, a look that reminded her of the look her father would get when there was something interesting, and it screamed try to stop me. The irony of her father and this man sharing the same look made her laugh out loud drawing a weird look from John," What are you laughing at?"

She controlled her laughter before responding," Just found something Ironic?"

He raised one eyebrow taking a draw from the cigarette," What's ironic involving my face?"

She seemed surprised that he noticed her looking at him, before she remembered the docks and how he read the small details of the dock worker, "Just...just remembering my dad...he had the same look in his eyes you had, it just screams try to stop me. Though with you I imagine it would involve a fist fight and whiskey, and with him it was a new physics theory he could test."

She saw John's face soften a little bit before he awkwardly put his large palm on her back as she sniffled a little bit. She decided to sniffle a little bit longer before talking again, " I'm sorry, it's just that my family was such a large part of my life, always there and always happy to help, and-and even though its been like four years i'm still not over it."

"It's always hard to get over death, especially when you are close to people like family. You sort of lose a part of you and it never really comes back"

She looked up at John as he attempted to comfort her, '_It was funny,_' she though, '_Marshall tries so hard to sympathize and Jason tries to so hard to give me space, I never had something like this, someone who seems to actually get it.'_ She sniffled again wiping the tears from her eyes,"It's even worse, that damn arrow, after he killed my dad, he shot my mother with this odd gun-" on the mention of the murder it was like a bolt of electricity flew through Johns brain but he didn't let it show-", like Seth said, and she just seemed to spasm before falling dead, then he shot me butI didn't die...and that's how I ended up here with these people."

John continued to comfort her with a passive look on his face before handing her another cigarette and letting her continue, he was curious about the missing time in between but knew not to push," Four years ago they died and I came to terms with it, I mean their deaths at least, but I still don't understand: why did I live? Why the hell did I get a stand, why not my mother the nicest person alive who never did anything wrong die and I got to live. I wasn't a good person, I was a thirteen year old punk and I inherited a stand, a great power that I just lucked my way into."

John just patted her back and commented, trying to lighten the mood," I'll admit I figured you for an eighteen year old, but I'm not too surprised."

Joy just chuckled and let him attempt to comfort her before she asked actually curious," How old are you, if you remember that is?"

John chuckled as he threw his cigarette butt over the railing," I'm 44, at least that's the age I remember."

She went wide eyed and responded without thinking," 44 you look like your 57 but hot."

John looked at her weird, and as she suddenly realized what she had said and began to turn red as he awkwardly changed the subject," So anyway...what's your stand, I heard you mention it earlier."

He offered her another cigarette that she accepted and lit before backing up and saying,"This is my stand, 『ALICE IN CHAINS』"

To John's credit he didn't flinch despite the nature of the stand, it almost had a dress composed of chains, a pair of metallic arms that ended in red nails, red eyes, and black libs. All in all, it was an imposing stand that he could see how it reflected her. She was young, tall, athletic, and definitely strong as he could tell how hard she was gripping the railing. He smirked when Joy asked, " So you've seen mine, how about yours? I mean I heard you mention that you remember how they work and even how yours works "

John smirked," I call it『RIDE THE LIGHTNING』"

* * *

Seth sat down in the chair with a heavy sigh before looking up at Marshall," So what do you want to ask, cause I know that look in your eye."

Marshall sighed in annoyance and spoke as Jason threw a cheeky glance at him,"I'm really that easy to read…...well, what do you know about John."

Jason cut into the conversation quickly," Why do we care, he obviously has a bone to pick with them and he was able to deal some damage to Leen, something that you and I have been having issues with, also, need I remind you that I'm injured...again ."

Marshall dragged his hand down his face , " Just because he has a bone to pick doesn't mean he's on our side, he could have pissed Mortis off and been thrown in there as a way to kill him."

Seth spoke up eyeing the two men," I'm not sure how helpful this is ,but I remember hearing something from the cell next to mine a very loud yelling and something along the lines of, "Someone will find what I left you rat-"

Seth stopped as Jason and Marshall got the idea and then all of them were just quiet for a second. Marshall spoke up looking Jason in the eye," Okay, we know we can trust you because you were on the list of missing persons," Seth look surprised at the fact he was actually reported missing," and we will trust John for now because he seems, key word **seems**, to be on our side, you need to keep an eye on him though."

Jason seemed to be placated and turned to go outside when Seth spoke up," What's with the gun?"

Jason raised an eyebrow as he turned around before looking at Marshall who spoke" The gun...his gun I assume."

"Yes, his gun," Seth responded harshly, a slight buzzing filling the air.

Marshall ignored the buzzing and began to exposit information," There are several ways stands tend to manifest, Randomly from strong natured people, even then it is still a 1/100 chance, other times it is an…._experimentalgovernmentdrug_,"Marshall rushed through," or even a strange item called the arrow, which is what we believe Mortis has."

Seth tried to interrupt in order to go back to the part Marshall rushed through, but he continued on as Jason gave a sympathetic look," From what little info we have Mortis left the country on a journey to the middle east where it seems he received the arrow. From what I managed to piece together from various reports and accounts, was that with the assistance of an underworld gunsmith ,called LuLu interestingly enough, he converted the arrow into either a bullet based form or a gun that produces the same effect. And before you ask, Yes, it would make sense for their to be limited ammo, but it doesn't seem to work like that, God knows why."

Seth look wide eyed at the information dump until Jason commented," Yeah...it's a lot to take in so feel free to ask Joy or I some more questions because he'll just explain it the same way over and over until something clicks."

Marshall looked very offended and went to respond, before Joy opened the door and came back inside a smouldering cigarette still in her mouth. Marshall stared wide eyed at the cigarette as John came in behind her shoving the pack into the chest pocket on the hawaiian shirt. Marshalls eyes nearly bugged out his head and he went to talk, more like yell violently about the legal age for smoking and how it destroys your lungs, when Jason Interrupted clapping his hands," All right, we got a bitch of a drive tomorrow and we should probably get to sleep to be ready."

Joy cast a thankful look and snubbed the cigarette before grabbing her backpack and heading into the bathroom to change. Seth and John shared a look before John grabbed two pillows and threw one to Seth and kept one for himself before laying down on the floor, as Jason laid down on one of the beds with Marshall putting a gun under the pillow before laying down with his back to Jason . Seth honestly was unsure of what was going to go down but he had a gut feeling that this was something he needed to do, a way to make it up to her... which really was the only reason he demanded to stick around. It was a new feeling for him conviction, normally he just manipulated that emotion in other people. He drifted off to sleep in the chair smirking,'_This will be one hell of an adventure."_

* * *

**Stand Stats**-『HERE COMES REVENGE』

User: Jason Creed

Strength:A

Speed:B

Range:D

Durability:B

Precision:C

Potential:A

『HERE COMES REVENGE』is a humanoid stand that is slightly taller than Jason. It has an overall white color with red lines crossing its entire body in a diamond pattern, it also has white hair with red tips that go down to it's waist in addition to red eyes. 『HERE COMES REVENGE』ability is simplistic: Any damage dealt to it's user or itself as a result of physical contact or a stand ability is dealt to the one who dealt it.

User History: Jason Creed always believed in helping people and it was reflected in how he always stood up for the kids who were getting bullied, that led to a lot of fights in every year of schooling. He eventually decided to become a paramedic which he greatly enjoyed, until one day something began to appear in the corner of his vision. Soon after he met Marshall at a crime scene where he accidentally summoned his stand, Marshall saw and for two days straight he actively begged Jason to help. Jason saw the reports of the missing people and decided to take a leave from being a paramedic in order to help the kidnapped people in the Mortis Case


	3. Chapter 3

It was about six in the morning the next day when Marshall got up and rolled out of bed as quietly as possible pulling his gun from under the pillow as he did. He decided to go outside, and believing he was the first one up he pulled off his button shirt from the previous day, grabbed a new one, and meandered outside while sliding the crisply folded shirt on. He looked out at the lightening sky enjoying the calmness and sighed running a hand across his face when a familiar voice interrupted," Morning there."

Marshall jumped and spun towards John who had half a cigarette hanging out of his mouth, in doing so however he also dropped his shirt off the balcony. "What are you doing up this early?" he hisses

John takes a final huff of the cigarette and snuffs it before responding," A mouse ran across my face, and after that I didn't want to think about what else could be in this….shithole."

Marshall sighs accepting the answer and pivots on his heel before walking down the stairs and retrieving his shirt from the concrete. As he begins to put it on and button it up, smoothing the creases out as he goes, he notices a chopper sitting in a parking spot. He looks at it curiously, this was not a motel that was on the path of any major roads, tourist attractions, or any spots a biker would want to go. Hell he had gone out of his way to find the worst possible hotel to minimize the possibility of random civilians. He supposed it could be a random tourist but….he wasn't the only living agent on this case for a reason, that and his general paranoia but it truly wasn't that bad. He finished putting the shirt on and walked to the car before beginning to inspect it checking for bombs or anything of the like, when suddenly Jason's voice came from above him," Car all good there?"

He looked up with a confused expression,"Why are you up, it's," he checks his watch," Six eleven."

Jason went to answer but the sound of conversation filtered out from the room," Yeah….We're all up, I think most of us are riding the high from finally having a lead on this case."

Marshall sighed and went back up the stairs leaving the car, and not noticing a dark stain on the tire that still glistened in the early morning light.

...

It had been about six hours of nonstop driving and Marshall was honestly annoyed, it was a common emotion for him but this was a special case: Somehow Joy was making him want to yell. It was a rare occurrence for him to be mad at her given that he had promised himself to not let her get hurt, and she was kind of like the younger sister he would have had if the birth had gone well. He sighed as she kicked the back of his seat again as she shifted trying to get comfortable. He had to admit that he was very surprised that John was fine being crammed in the backseat, this van was not meant for people built like John or even Joyce for that matter. He glanced down at the speedometer, holding at 65 mph on the dot, and looked at the gas tank being exactly half full and sighed,"_Something just feels off about this." _Immediately after he thought that he checked the rear view mirror and noticed a black blob far back on the highway...almost like a chopper. He flicked the turn signal on and turned off onto a side road. He checked the rear view mirror and saw the chopper fly by the turn off, Marshall turned back to the road and kept driving forward. He let out a small sigh of relief and shrugged off his paranoia as simply being on this case for too long.

Only five minutes later the back right tire exploded, throwing bits of shredded plastic and metal into the air behind the car, and forcing Marshall to grip the wheel and swing the car off the road and into the rocky berth on the side . Marshall and Jason were already out of the car and nearly sprinted back with Jason swearing a storm, " Son of a bitch, this goddamn car just has to break the fuck down now."

"Calm down," Marshall said as he looks over the completely shredded tire," Look about a mile down the road there should be a full service repair shop, at least according to the map I bought at the hotel."

John had finally managed to get out of the car and join the growing crowd along with Joy and Seth," How the hell did you manage to pop a tire like that."

Marshall looked at John with an aggravated scowl, " Well it's 100 degrees out and this road looks like it was hit by a rock slide,"John raised his arms in surrender, " Now someone has to go to the auto shop and convince them to get a tow truck out here."

Jason wiped his head before shaking it, while Seth gestured to his bandages and rolled his sleeves up. Marshall turned to Joy who shrugged her shoulders and began to tighten her shoes. He turned back to the tire and froze, his mind summoned up an image of the blurry chopper and he looked at the long stretch of road. Joy can handle herself in a fight, but if she gets caught alone and surprised『ALICE IN CHAINS』would be near useless with these materials. He turned back and quickly examined his...team(God he didn't like calling them that.); Jason would be useful but the synergy between them doesn't exist, a stand that deals the damage dealt to the user to the one who caused it and a stand that makes chains...yeah not great, Seth's stand seems to not be good for an open field and given his injury he would be a liability. Marshall paused and began to look over the two men before slowly turning and glaring at John, despite his age he looked like an athlete and he ,apparently, had a stand capable of fighting Leen, a physical powerhouse...Damn it…,"John...go with her and make sure nothing happens."

John looked surprised at the request but nonchalantly reached into his Hawaiian shirt pocket and tossed the pack of cigarettes to him ," Got it boss."

Marshall looked at John as he took off in a jog after Joy down the road and into the distance, disappearing into the heat based mirage as they progressed. Even though he was confident in Joy's ability to fight still couldn't shake this bad feeling that this was going to be an issue .

On one of the nearby sand hills the chopper rider stood, his arms wrapped with bandages and a lit cigarette in his mouth, smoke wafting up into the sky. He smirked as he saw two of the members set off off down the road towards the mechanic shop. He got back onto his bike and walked it down the hill before gunning the engine and tearing off across the desert, his targets walking, running rather, into his trap.

* * *

The tow truck pulled to the auto shop hauling the black van behind, and Joy picked her head off the concrete where she was laying to watch. She chuckled a bit as she heard the raspy voice of John comment," Took 'em long enough to get here."

She let her head go back to laying on the concrete as she tried to get her body to stop hurting. She glanced at John who had taken his cheap Hawaiian shirt off and was also trying to get his breathing under control. She was honestly amazed that this 43 year old somehow managed to keep pace with her, a 17 year old athletic freak of nature. She cast a glance at him before Marshall yelled," Joy, John get over here and help get our stuff out of the car."

Joy heard John push himself up and when she opened her eyes she saw a hand to help her up. She took it and made her way back into the hot sun slowly, really not wanting to help. She saw Jason giver her a knowing look before popping the trunk and pulling out a duffel bag. Joy groaned and grabbed the heavy case that Marshall always had in the car and her duffel bag, or as she had been calling it her apartment. John was right behind her and reached into the car when a sudden an explosion rocked the front of the tow truck sending the poor driver flying into the air before colliding with the ground, his chest seeming to leak smoke. Joy froze but was quickly shoved by John as he pushed her behind the van, she saw Seth dive behind a different wreck in the parking lot since he had walked away to take a piss, Jason dove into the garage of the auto shop since she didn't , and she had no idea where Marshall is and that scared her more than anything.

Marshall had heard the explosion and entirely on instinct had thrown himself into the drainage ditch that was closest to him and immediately reached for his gun…...only to quickly find that it wasn't in his holster or even anywhere on his person. He silently cursed and looked back towards the van and saw his gun sitting in the middle of the gravel parking lot. He dropped his head into his arms before calling out," Is everyone alright, or at least not currently dead?"

There was a chorus of responses that gave Marshall a general idea of where everybody had ended up, it wasn't a great scenario but it could be worse. He was drawn out of his musing by Jason calling out," Did anyone see what actually happened, all I caught was an explosion."

"I just caught the explosion that set the poor sap flying," Marshall managed to pick up on Seth's voice.

Marshall poked his head out of his trench and looked over across the gravel driveway again and eyed his gun sitting calmly in the middle of the gravel field. His mind kept running over what the best possible plan was in order to retrieve his gun, that was before he remembered exactly what Joy's stand could do. " Joy, I need you to get my gun for me."

He heard her voice chime back with," Alright, where exactly is it? Because I didn't see it in the van, I-"

"It's in the middle of the parking lot," Marshall interrupted peering at the legs of what he presumed was Joy and John, and taking in the sudden stiffness in her legs.

Joys eye actually twitched in response to hearing Marshall's response to where his gun is. His entire stand revolved around his firearm and he loses it in a situation where it would be incredibly useful. It could easily tell them where the person who blew the attendant up was, or allow them to at least figure out how the explosion went off. She grumbled to herself as she placed a hand on the tow truck and summoned『ALICE IN CHAINS』. As it came into existence there was a sudden crack of a rifle and in response Joy dropped even lower behind her cover with 『ALICE IN CHAINS』 following her motion. A bullet whizzed over her head impacting the ground in between where her and John were hiding and where Seth had thrown himself. She looked through the window of the van and saw the glint of metal on top of one of the hills overlooking the gas station. She steeled herself and began to use『ALICE IN CHAINS』causing chains to form from the outside of the tow truck, the metal bending and tearing itself away from the tow truck. She began to manipulate the newly formed chain to go towards the gun, and when the chain eventually reached the handgun she had it snake around the handle before she wrapped the newly formed end of the chain around arm. She paused for a second as another rifle crack barely missed her chain, but she quickly got over her fear and yanked the chain back bringing the gun with it. She clasped her hand around it and felt a moment of calm at having Marshall's side arm back, that moment of calm is broken when another rifle clack impacts in the garage where Jason had been inching towards the open door. She yelled to Marshall," I got the gun."

She saw Marshall adjust his position before he responded," Perfect, just get it to me and I can handle the sniper."

Joy froze in place and stared at the gun in her hand, she heard Marshall's voice come through again," I don't even think you need to use your stand you may just be able to thro-oh, oh shit."

Joy for the first time in a while hated herself not for her own survival, but for her inability to throw anything. She was drawn out of her self deprecating stupor when John spoke up," Give it here."

She handed the gun over carefully while asking," Why haven't you been speaking up?"

John shrugged and gestured vaguely to the hill with the sniper," A bit more focused on figuring out where the sniper can't see me."

Joy went to respond but cut herself off when she didn't have a great answer. She watched John maneuver towards the front of the tow truck before gripping the gun like a horseshoe before underhand tossing it. She watched spin in the air with a nearly perfect arc and drop right into the trench where Marshall had been hiding out.

The gun landed right next to Marshall in the ditch actually startling him. Admittedly he was already high strung from the sudden appearance of a sniper, though he calmed down a bit as it seemed the sniper was fully content to try to wait them out in the 100 degree weather as it gave them a chance to fight back. He shook his head and smiled as he knocked the chamber on the Model 27 open….and his smile almost immediately disappeared. He had one damn bullet and after a quick pat down of his pockets and ammo belt he had no other bullets on him. Marshall swore to himself and began to seriously curse his nostalgia for the Model 27. He didn't know if the shooter had ears on their location, so he made the decision to not tell the others of the situation. He slammed the chamber shut pulled the trigger back and readjusted his position to where he was aiming the pistol directly at where he had seen the slight glint of metal reflection. He paused and began nto think over the possible laws that the sniper could be charged with, since he only had one bullet. He stopped breathing and decided to mentally declare, " _Guilty of Murder in the First Degree." _activating his stand causing the lines to appear and once he pulled the trigger he saw the bullet arc. He quickly rolled back into the complete cover of his ditch and waited.

It was only about five and a half seconds later when he heard a motorcycle roaring down the hills, and he decided to take that as the fact that he had hit his target. He sprung to his feet and sprinted for the van yelling," Move, Move, Move."

He was only about ten feet from the van when an explosion erupted in front of him throwing him backwards onto the gravel with ears ringing. The first thing that came to his attention was the sound of the motorbike growing closer. He forced his still numb body up and managed to get his legs to carry him behind a concrete divider before the bike got any closer. As he began to regain some of his senses he noticed how tightly his hand was gripping his pistol, in fear or just in pain he didn't really know. He saw the small engraving on the side of the barrel and breathed out.

John had been ready to make a sprint for the shaded garage when they had been pinned down, but when they had gotten the gun to Marshall he assumed the issue had been taking care of. Hearing him say move had confused him which meant that Joy had passed him as she mad the run to the garage where Jason was. He had gone to move when another explosion went off that caused him to hunker right back down behind the tow truck. He cast a glance at Seth who had gone to make a run but froze at the explosion leaving him basically stuck in no man's land. John could see the indecision playing out on his face, and he could also see the moment he panicked and set out in a dead out sprint for the tow truck. John watched as Seth's foot hit the ground and his eyes widened before switching his line of sight to John and yelling out as his stand suddenly began to manifest," THE BLO-"

Seth didn't get to finish his sentence as another explosion erupted right in front of Seth. His stand managed to cover the 'shrapnel' (rocks & pebbles really) but the force still lifted him up into the air. He smacked the ground hard and didn't make any movement aside from the rise and fall of his chest. Johns attention was quickly drawn away from his unconscious body when the sniper started talking," You sons of bitches couldn't just let me make this easy could you, had to have abilities that let get around my full proof strategy."

The man kept talking but John had stopped listening, he had recognized the voice and as the man kept talking he felt the name coming back. Suddenly it clicked and he spoke up," You're Owen Spring aren't you, _famous _discount gun for hire."

"Glad youva heard of me, but flattery will get you nowhere ," Owen kept talking as John stopped listening again as he began to summon forth the power of『RIDE THE LIGHTNING』as electricity coursing and sparking over his right arm.

Owen paused for a breath and John took the opportunity to explode upward and through his right arm forward releasing a bolt of electricity that nailed Owen in the shoulder. Though, as Owen was hit he threw up what John now saw was a completely lacerated left hand. John also noticed the rifle held in his right with a completely shattered scope. He snapped back to the moment as blood arced from the hand towards him, as this happened a jolt ran through his mind simply supplying that he absolutely needed to dodge these particles. Instead of dodging however he summoned forth『RIDE THE LIGHTNING』and had it punch the car bending the hood upwards and intercepting the blood. He breathed a sigh of relief when the bent hood suddenly erupted in an explosion sending John backwards onto the ground. He was vaguely aware that Owen was monologue again, but he was more focused on Marshall who was mouthing something. John shook his head trying to clear it but it seemed like Marshall was done as he just straight out yelled," DISTRACT HIM!"

John took that instruction to heart and quickly used 『RIDE THE LIGHTNING』to fire off another bolt of electricity, though it had much less to do with the instruction Marshall provided and the barrel of a rifle coming around the car. He scrambled to his feet and rushed the stunned Owen, one hand grabbing the barrel of the rifle and the other making a solid connection the side of Owens face. John vaguely noticed Marshall making a mad dash for the van's passenger door, but he was suddenly distracted by a wet feeling on his stomach. He glanced down and saw a smear of wet blood across his Hawaiian shirt. Suddenly though something clicked, though admittedly it seems obvious, Seth had been trying to yell out about the BLOOD and the explosions always seem to follow his blood coming into contact with something. John looked at the bruising face of Owen and then noticed his thumb descending as if he was pressing a trigger. John grabbed his shirt and ripped it off and throwing it behind him and diving forward with his back feeling the heat of the following explosion washing over his back. In a fluid movement 『RIDE THE LIGHTNING』exploded forward in a flurry of punches, however Owen had already been backing up allowing only a few of the punches to connect and even those sent him backwards. John let his eyes wander to Marshall who in the chaos had gotten to the van and was ripping through the passenger seat for something. He turned his attention back a second to late as Owen had backed up out of the range『RIDE THE LIGHTNING』to physically attack and had the rifle raised and aimed directly at him. John froze as Owen spoke," You really should have stayed buried."

He saw Owens finger go to press the trigger when out of nowhere a chain composed of concrete crashed into Owen throwing his aim off and making him stumble backward. Joy came to stand right next to John with 『ALICE IN CHAINS』 summoned and ready to attack. John summoned 『RIDE THE LIGHTNING』and chuckled, "What took you so long?"

"I had to help Jason get Seth into the garage, he was way too cautious and demanded we be stealthy," She responded getting ready to fight as Owen struggled back to his feet.

"Those fuckers couldn't have told me less," Owen yelled as threw his arm forward splattering blood on the ground," Told me that it would be fuckin' easy to get you fuckers especially since they gave me this damn power, but no you all had better powers than I did."

Joy went to rush forward but John grabbed her at the last second as Owen detonated the blood he had splattered on the ground blinding the duo. John heard graveling rustling as the smoke cleared and he realized almost too late that Owen was making a break for his bike.

* * *

Owen got onto his chopper and gunned it, throwing gravel and dirt behind him as he took off. He winced a bit as the adrenaline finally began to wear off and his lacerated left hand pulsated with pain. He also began to realize that that fucking girl may have broken a few ribs when the...dust chain or whatever impacted his chest. "Goddamnit Mortis," He muttered out.

He had jumped at the opportunity to get the stand or whatever it was called, '_I mean for the low price of few free hits it was worth it." _The only issue was for this hit Mortis hadn't told him anything, only that there were three people he needed dead and not to worry about their stands. Turns out three people had turned into five and he needed to worry about their powers. He had tagged the car at the hotel and was feeling confident as he followed them down the highway. It had all gone according to plan until the fucker with the gun had managed to explode his scope with a damn pistol. Even from there he was confident since 『RIDES THE BOMB TO HELL』meant that with the more he was bleeding the more dangerous he was. He really wished Mortis had told him what he was dealing with, because getting shocked with electricity from a DEAD man was not fun. He guessed he had been found out when he detonated the bullet the smaller guy had been close too. He must have seen the blood and yelled out before the blast got him, but one kill is better than none. It's not like they can prevent a single bloodstained bullet from landing close to them, the real matter is going to be killing John since that bas-"GAHHHHHHHHH"

Owen fell from the bike after something tore through his shoulder, he hit the ground and skidded along the ground tearing skin and jacket off alike. He struggled to his feet and saw the man with a pistol standing about 90 yards away with a smoking barrel. He realized his head was bleeding as red interrupted the image girl taking off down the asphalt road towards him. Reached for the rifle only to realize that it was completely gone, shattered, or even obliterated. He looked at the girl who was now closing in on him with chains coming from the ground around her. Owen smiled darkly as he felt the blood soak his clothes, there was no way he was going back to any damn prison. His rap sheet was too long to do anything other than sit on death row to wait for somebody else to kill him, he chuckled to himself. 『RIDES THE BOMB TO HELL』 had given him so many options when it came to doing his hits and other jobs, but all it took to undo the notorious Owen Spring was a lack of information, and maybe the ego from having the ability to kill somebody with a drop of blood. The girl was now only fifteen feet away and Owen raised his un-lacerated hand and dropped his thumb," See you in hell, Mortis."

Seth had woken up when up when the hit man or whatever, had gunned the motorcycle and he was quick to get up and follow the group as they tried to catch up to the motorcycle. He had been behind Marshall when the pistol was raised," Marshall let him go and just save the bul-"

The crack had interrupted him and the man falling off the motorcycle and rolling down the road. He noticed that Joy hadn't stopped like he had and had kept barreling ahead, her terrifying stand summoned and, oddly enough, chains forming out of the asphalt. She was bearing down on the man when something suddenly clicked; Blood was the thing that exploded, he had noticed because the bullet he was almost on top of had been covered in a red stain before it exploded, and the man was literally covered with it. Furthermore, judging by the look the man had on his bloody face he wasn't getting arrested. He saw the man's thumb fall as he mouthed something and suddenly a large explosion engulfed him and a small one erupting in the gravel parking lot next to where Jason was 'helping' John, much to the latter's annoyance if body language was anything to go by. He looked back and saw that all that was left of the hit man was a burning skull missing the lower jaw.

* * *

**Stand Stats**\- 『RIDES THE BOMB TO HELL』

User: Owen Spring

Strength: N/A

Speed:N/A

Range: C

Durability: N/A

Precision: C

Potential: C

『RIDES THE BOMB TO HELL』manifests in the blood of Owen and turns his blood into a highly explosive material. The detonation process is tied to a thumb drop motion on either hand and the blood has to be in the line of sight of Owen. There is no limitation on the age of the blood that limits detonation, but dried blood packs a significantly lower punch.

User History: Owen was a volatile hitman who specialized in explosive assassinations, but he was always looking forward to finding a better explosives. He managed to work himself in Mortis good graces with propensity for violence and his constant pursuit for better explosives. Mortis, after an overseas trip to Europe, returned and contacted him with an offer. An offer of power that made him say yes. He was shot with the same gun that joy was hit with and that made him manifest his stand. From there he expanded his operation as a hitman and improved his ability to off topics making himself feel invincible. However he always owed a debt of loyalty to Mortis, that could be recalled at any time


	4. Chapter 4

Seth sat on the side of the garage enjoying the shade and attempting to keep a series of thoughts from encroaching into his thought process. It was a losing battle, much to his complete annoyance and the voices emanating from the garage were not helping him keeping the thoughts out. Seth struggled to his feet still feeling the pain of being launched three feet into the air and landing on rocks. As he finally got to his feet he heard the familiar voice of Jason, "You feeling okay there?"

Seth cast a glance at Jason," Besides the constant pain throughout my body, and my damn near uselessness ...I'm great."

Jason raised an eyebrow," The pain is normal for being almost blown up, but it seems you may have some other issues-"

"The only issue," Seth said while giving a dark chuckle," Is that I am completely useless. In this last little skirmish I dove behind a rusted car, hid, and soon after I went flying three feet in the air before hitting the ground...nice and hard."

Seth turned on a dime and threw a solid right hand at the wall, his hand impacting and immediately causing his knuckles to split and pain to fly up his arm. Jason watched with a surprisingly still expression as Seth grabbed his bloody hand and began to curse. Eventually, Seth stopped swearing and let the blood from his knuckles drip into the sand for a moment before he continued," My entire life I've been in control, I've been the one able to control my destiny, and here I stand having to rely on others to save me again and again."

Jason interrupted Seth's angry rant," I get where you are coming from, that feeling of powerlessness...or whatever the word is."

"You don't," Seth said gesturing with his bloodied hand," When you entered into this world, or whatever, you got lucky with a stand that makes you able to fight, that gives you some sort of use in combat."

Jason opened his mouth but Seth kept going," I was rescued by you guys, you guys gave me a chance, and you guys all saved me again when I was unconscious. Before I was like this," he gestured to his person," I kept everyone at an arm's length and used them to benefit me, but now you are all helping me and...and...and I can't do anything to make myself useful. I'm useless in a fight and my stand is a swarm of beetles that can't do jack."

Seth plopped back down on the concrete and put his head in his hands. He had been in this cushy archivist position for the government, and there he was able to work by himself and observe the other people he worked with. From that he was able to navigate the social ladder and get himself into a pointless position that made enough money to live comfortably. It had always been a thing of his to take over the room, whether it be by playing submissive or by playing top dog. Now, Now he felt completely powerless in this situation and there was nothing he was able to do to change it.

Jason stepped forward," No stand and by extension no person is useless, it's a matter of situation and imagination."

Seth looked up with almost a puzzled expression as Jason just shrugged and decided to walk away leaving Seth to stew.

It was only two hours later that Joy and John had managed to fix the incredibly simple engine issue and get them back on the road again. Jason folded, more like attempted to, the road map and put it back in the glove compartment. He grimaced as pure pain shot through his hand, he flexed it a few times gauging the impairment before pulling out a bottle of pills. He fought the bottle open with his good hand and downed as many pills that wouldn't cause an overdose. This was becoming a ritual that he hated, it reminded him far too much of the druggies he would have to deal with when he was a paramedic. He closed his eyes and leaned back into the seat, hoping to get some sleep and wake up when the drugs would be in effect. Marshall's voice cut in a few seconds later, " Is...John going to be okay?"

"I'm right here," Jason chuckled at the indigence in Johns voice," Why don't you just ask me?"

Marshall didn't even hesitate before his response shot back," You care for body about as much as Joy does, and that's really not a good thing."

Joy gave a small cry of outrage," What does that mean?"

This time Jason spun around in his seat, earning a harsh glare from Marshall," Joy, you broke your hand, your leg and nearly got sent to Dolphin Street Prison or whatever it was called."

Seth now joined the conversation with wide eyes," You nearly went to Green Dolphin Street, the sister prison of Alcatraz known for being completely self sustaining."

Jason laughed," Yeah, Marshall had to pull quite a few strings with the FBI in order to get her out of the prison sentence."

Jason turned back to Marshall who looked like had a vessel popping out of his forehead as he spoke," Just tell me if John is fine….I don't need to relive that entire series of semi-illegal dealings and IOU's."

Jason chuckled," Yeah he's fine as one can be after having gravel shrapnel pulled from their back, and he also still has a few ribs cracked from when Leen punted him across Alcatraz."

Jason saw Marshall nod his head before asking," How is Seth?"

Jason saw Seth spin from looking back at John to look at Marshall with wide eyes. Jason smirked before turning back to the road and responding," The cuts were bloody but not too deep and the explosion didn't reopen any of them luckily, It seems that he managed to block most of it with...what's it's name again."

"『BALLROOM BLITZ』, it just seemed to make sense when I was all alone in that cell."

Jason nodded and continued," Yeah, it managed to block most of it. Though I do have to ask, How did you catch the blood on the bullet."

Seth had a grim smile on his face," It was a sudden connection, I vaguely recalled seeing something red on the bullet remains as I ran. It was a split second where I remembered seeing a stain on the attendants overalls, about the same area where the explosion originated based on the chest wound, and at that point I just took a stab in the dark as it went off."

Jason chuckled as he took in Joys complete befuddlement at how he managed to notice those small details. Jason rolled back into his seat and leaned his head back into the seat and tuned out Joys incessant questioning allowing himself to fall asleep.

...

-son, Jason!" Jason shot awake with Joy's voice ringing through his ears. He looked out the windshield and saw a highway rest stop highlighted by the setting sun.

Jason rubbed the sleep out of his eyes," What time is it?"

Marshall pulled the car into one of the many empty spots, put it in park, and then examined his watch," It is 2030."

Jason rolled his eyes and got out of the car as Joy whined," Speak English please, nobody here is actually able to tell what time it is when you use that stupid twenty four hour clock ."

Instantaneously Jason, John, and even Seth all spoke out at the same time," Eight Thirty."

Jason glanced out of the corner of his eye and saw Joy pout before throwing herself out of the car, with John following close behind. He turned and saw Marshall standing in the drivers side door with a box of bullets in front of him, fistfuls of bullets being put into pockets, and the Model 27 strapped firmly in its holster. He spoke up walking towards Marshall," You know we, at least Joy and I don't blame you?"

Marshall cast a sidelong glance as he fit six bullets into a speed re loader," Doesn't matter...I got sloppy and that can't stand. I have to be ready," He turned to Jason," We've been attacked by an extremely deadly, and thankfully narcissistic, hit man. Mortis has only ever sent various goons without stands or just Leen and Priest, we have something and with that something things are going to get worse as we get closer."

Marshall shifted his gaze over Jason's shoulder. Jason turned and saw the large figure of Marshall sitting on a bench with a lit cigarette in his mouth. "You still don't trust him?" Jason asked over his shoulder.

Marshall put a hand on his shoulder as he walked past,"Not quite…."

Jason went to ask Marshall if he was in charge, but just decided to assume that the answer was yes before he turned back to where Joy and Seth were digging the blankets out from the messy trunk. He walked up to the duo, with no real intention to help them but rather the intention to claim the only good blanket they owned. '_Wait...we only have two blankets,'_ Jason took off for the trunk after remembering that 'essential' fact. He really did miss the roach infested motels they stayed in while they were investigating disappearances in Florida, it was definitely better than these empty lots. Though he figured he better get comfortable since with five people they weren't going to be able to afford a lot with all the medical equipment they were going to need.

* * *

Marshall walked across the empty parking lot with a degree of resignation. Owens attack had been the smack in the face he needed...they were into the deep end now. Up until now they chased the smallest leads all over America only having to deal with Leen and Priest. Now they had gotten into a fight with what could be considered the 'next step up', and that meant that the information they had meant something. That lead to the other source of his resignation, John Doe. It seemed far to lucky that they managed to find John and far too convenient that he had memory loss. Marshall finally reached the sitting area and paused before deciding to just throw decorum to wind...not that it was something he used in the first place. John saw Marshall from where he was sitting and called out," Hey Marshall, what's up?"

" I need to count on you going forward," Marshall internally winced at how hamfisted he delivered that line.

John threw his cigarette down and ground it with his foot before responding," What do you mean 'count on me'?"

Marshall sat down next to John," You came forward with the fact that those numbers at the hotel were addresses and gave us one of the biggest leads in this investigation, the information you have has some sort of basis and we need it going forward…."

"That's not everything is it," John questioned staring at Marshall

Marshall sat in silence for a moment before he continued," The Owen fight put something in perspective for me today...If I go down I want you to take over and finish what I started."

John looked at him with wide eyes for a moment Marshall just sat there," Why?"

Marshall responded after a quick chuckle," I'm not immortal and with the real threats coming out, any mistake I make might not be one I can overcome and I think only you would be able to follow whatever signs there are to finish what I started."

"I thought you didn't trust me at all?"

"I'm making the decision to ignore my logic and trust you."

John looked at Marshall with confusion in his eyes," Why are you deciding to trust me? "

Marshall ran a hand through his hair," I really don't want to trust you, to be honest. "

John chuckled and leaned back on the bench," I don't really blame you for that, I mean my story was very unrealistic."

Marshall chuckled before answering," I guess I'm trusting you based on what Joy thinks…"

"Really?"

"I know it sounds dumb, especially from me but...she's always been able to nail what a person is at their core and she just gravitates towards you."

John sat there and let silence descend over the pair before he responded," I-thank you and I'll do my best to make sure we get the bastard."

Marshall chuckled," Now I get why she hangs out with you, she said the exact same thing to me when she joined me on the investigation."

John laughed and followed Marshall and started walking towards the car, where the other three members of the 'team' had claimed seats for their makeshift beds. Despite how the conversation had gone with John he couldn't get rid of the small worry that was lodged in the back of his mind.

* * *

**STAND STATS**\- 『RIDE THE LIGHTNING』

User: John Doe

Strength: A

Speed: B

Range: C

Durability: B

Precision: C

Potential: B

『RIDE THE LIGHTNING』is humanoid stand with blue skin and what resembles metallic restraints on it's wrists and ankles and a metallic 'blindfold' covering the area where it's eyes would be. It's ability is to generate electricity, that is measured with an ampere meter in it's chest, and then it can channel that electricity through its or the users body. It also possesses a great degree of physical power reflecting the physique of John, the user.

User History: All he knows is that his name is John Doe and he's from Chicago.


	5. Chapter 5

Joy tried to ignore the light that was shining through her eyelids, but it was a losing fight and she eventually gave in and opened her eyes. She looked around the car and saw Jason and Seth sleeping soundly away with the blankets they had managed to steal from her. She quietly moved and made to open the passenger wondering where John and Marshall had ended up. She threw the door open and a sudden dull thud answered the question. "Gahhh," hissed out Marshall as he was holding his nose," Why did you throw it open? It's not even necessary to throw it open."

Joy just shook her head, grabbed her bag, closed the door behind her, and started to walk away. Walking by Marshall as he held his nose she noticed dust stains all over his shoes and pants. She winced as she realized that John and him hadn't gotten in the car last night...though Marshall could have probably slept in the trunk and didn't because it 'violated protocol'. She chuckled to herself as she walked towards the main building where she guessed the showers were. She honestly didn't mind sleeping in the van when they stayed over at the truck stop parking lots, it certainly raised less eyebrows when Marshall just flashed his FBI ID then when two grown men walked into a hotel with a seventeen year old. Though not many people actually place her as a seventeen year old, '_How many seventeen year old girls are six foot two and are willing to throw down with anyone._' She actually laughed out loud as she entered the building, Marshall and Jason may give her grief for almost ending up in Green Dolphin Street but she actually find the entire incident funny. She was being jailed for taking out four schmucks for hitting on an underaged girl, and she hadn't even used her stand. She opened the nearest shower room door still lost in thought, though she very quickly snapped back to reality when she saw the shirtless back of John hunched over a sink shaving. "What are you doing in here?" She asked startled.

John turned around with a straight razor in his hand," Shaving after I showered. What are you doing in here?"

"I'm here to shave and shower!"

John chuckled and put the razor back in a small shaving kit," Well I'm done but just so you know the women's showers are across the hall."

John slipped on another gaudy Hawaiian print shirt and buttoned it up as he followed Joy out the bathroom door, he gave her a salute as he walked towards the main doors. Joy stopped before opening the women's door, " Hey can I get a smoke from you?"

John patted his pockets before producing a carton and tossing it to her," Careful these things can kill you."

Joy caught the carton and slipped it into her bag," If you know that then why do you smoke em?"

John spread his arms wide and called out," Who knows the answer to that."

Joy went to respond but just shoved the door open in annoyance at how technically true the statement was, like one of the technicalities Marshall used to get her out of trouble only used against her. Her thought process was derailed as soon as she felt the slightly warm water hit her skin knocking a solid layer of dust off. She almost moaned at how good it felt to take a half decent shower, but managed to keep some sense of decorum despite the empty room. She quickly ran through cleaning her body and turned for her washcloth only to not find it. She popped open the curtain a little bit and looked out into the common area of the shower room and saw it smack in the middle of the floor," Damn it."

She poked her head out and checked both ways, making sure there were no people, before letting『ALICE IN CHAINS』out. She felt the power flow through her veins before touching her hand to the tile floor and willing a chain to form. It was always a weird feeling, the sense of feeling something that isn't attached to you but she couldn't deny that it was very useful. She snagged the towel, hauled it back to her shower stall, stepped back into the water, and went to deactivate her stand but stopped short. She felt something...slippery almost, surrounding her, it was like when『ALICE IN CHAINS』 was active and she can feel the usable materials around her. Now though, it was like when she was chasing down Owen; there was just something that she could feel, like something just sliding through her fingers. She decided to keep 『AlLICE IN CHAINS』active and focused on the _something _that she was feeling. It felt like forever when from the puddle of water on the floor thin, clear chains arose and began to sway with her commands. It was difficult though is it felt like it kept slipping through her fingers...it was like sand, when she controlled sand it she had to try to keep her grip on as much of it as possible in order to control it and keep the chains solid. The chains disappeared suddenly when cold water doused her, seems that there wasn't enough hot water in the pipes. "SON OF A-"

A few minutes later Joy kicked open the door to the shower room and stormed out into the warming desert. She reached into her bag and fished out the pack John had thrown her before pausing and quickly looking over towards the car. She saw Jason and Seth stretching outside of the car, the issue was that she didn't know where Marshall was and that was an issue. If he saw her smoking she would be in a world of pain, so she opted to go the other way to save the back of her head several heavy handed slaps. She meandered over to a low wall before crouching down and lighting a cigarette. She slipped down to the ground and leaned against the wall, just trying to enjoy the brief moment of peace before they hit the road again. She was somewhat worried about word moving ahead of their survival against Owen, but part of her hoped that normal level of disorganization stayed around. Mortis did tend to keep gag orders in between members of his organization, so she really hoped that played into their favor. A sudden voice drew her out of her stupor," You got a another smoke I can have."

Joy looked up and saw a young tan face staring down at her, and an impish smirk on his face and a slight scar running over his lip. She chuckled," Does the brat asking have a name?"

The boy smirk only seemed to grow before he responded," Rob, Rob Zieger."

Joy pulled the carton out and offered him one, "Mines Joy, Joy Jordan."

Rob chuckled as he pulled himself on top of the wall to sit," Really, Jojo,"

Joy went red in the face before flipping him off and turned away muttering," Stupid nickname, goddamn middle school dance."

Rob laughed before Joy interrupted him asking," So why the hell are you at a nearly abandoned Nevada truck stop."

Joy looked up and saw the questioning look on Robs face before he responded," Cause I've been driving since ten a.m. yesterday, and honestly I'm just running of spite for the ass the 'employs' me."

Joy looked like she wanted to ask a question, but a man wearing black shades walked over," Zieger, you ready to go we are ahead of schedule and we should stay that way."

Joy saw the mans face and felt her brain freeze, he was one of the mercs she had injured in Florida (Different from the pedophiles, though.) and that meant he worked for Mortis. The man saw Joy and quickly reached in his jacket nearly yelling," You're that godd-"

He would have finished his sentence but『ALICE IN CHAINS』exploded forward, with Rob's eyes going wide as he threw himself backwards, and delivered a devastating right hook to the man sending him flying. In the process however she had stood up and was now in the line of sight of about fifteen other heavily armed mercenaries who knew who she was. She made the sensible choice of grabbing her bag and booking back towards the car. She rounded the corner as the bullets started to fly by and yelled in the direction of the car,"WE HAVE AN ISSUE!."

Jason was wide eyed with a toothbrush in his mouth looking at her she ran towards the car, but he seemed to snap out of it and basically dove into the driver's seat and started the car. Seth seemed to be frozen but Joy tackled him into the middle two seats. As she closed the door he asked," What about John and Marshall?!"

Joy heard the panic in Jason's voice as she looked up and saw them coming around the corner," Rule 23-2Z!."

Joy got thrown back into the seat as Jason floored and actually jumped the curb to cut back onto the highway. Joy turned around and looked out the rear window and saw a single black van pull out after them, she sighed in relief. They were going close to a hundred, and she knew enough about cars to know that this engine was modified to go even faster, not that Marshall used it, so there was no way the van was going to catch them. She went to speak up when a horrible sound of metal scratching against metal echoed through the air, and then there was a quickly approaching blur coming towards them.

* * *

Rob had hit the ground after Joy had summoned her stand, Wonderland something or other, and probably killed the mercenary he was with. He had opted to stay down when the gunfire started so none of those ass hats got any ideas about shooting him and telling Mortis he resisted, not that Mortis wasn't figuratively holding a gun to his head anyway. As he pushed himself he felt a rough hand grab the back of his leather duster and haul him all the way up. " I mean did you really need-"

He was cut off by the click of a gun,"-Give me the keys."

The keys were shoved into his hand and he was shoved towards one of the vans they had come here in from Alcatraz. '_Just a basic equipment and personnel move.'_ he thought as he slipped into the driver's seat and put the seat belt on,'_Mortis, if I wasn't terrified of you I'd tell you your definition of simple is batshit crazy.'_

He turned the key and allowed his stand to activate, and very quickly the car began to show the effects. The cab shortened, the passenger seat disappeared, the seat belt became a harness, the speedometer cracked and the needle just fell off, multiple exhaust pipes came out around the sides and began to spit flames, and he felt the final mark of the change occur the tires pop. He smiled as he slammed down on the gas pedal, as much as he hated Mortis he did love what『DRAGULA』was capable of, and let the tires spin into flames before shifting out of park and taking off after Joy; heralded by the horrible sound of screeching metal. He felt himself get slammed back into the seat as it took off going over the curb with no difficulty and cutting across the sandy ground like it was asphalt before getting onto the highway and pressing the gas pedal even further….God he loved this part.

* * *

Marshall was inside trying to looking over another map and comparing possible routes and to find the fastest series of speed limits to make the address as quickly as possible. Mortis kept radio silence between his henchmen and mercenaries in some sort of paranoia, but he really didn't want to risk wasting much more time. He thought he had found an appropriate route when the all too familiar sound of gunshots reached his ears . The model 27 was out and he was behind the pamphlet stand before the map even hit the ground. He peeked around the corner and saw an armed men step in front of the glass door as he fired at something, that something he guessed to be their car. '_At least they remembered protocol 23-2Z; if you are threatened with capture or death escape with whoever you can….only issue is that means that I'm alone now." _ Marshall sighed and pulled the hammer back before spinning out of cover and heading towards the door. The henchman turned and looked through the glass door, his eyes screamed surprise but nothing made it out of his mouth as two shots impacted his chest putting him down. Marshall kept his cool and kept walking forward smoothly taking out another guard who rushed forward, two more shots and another dead guard. Marshall stepped out of the building back into the desert air. He vaguely heard yelling coming from the other side of the building before the now familiar sound of electricity followed. He made his way to the corner of the building just as John flew over the small half-wall into the sand. John scrambled to all fours and pressed his back against the wall breathing quickly. Marshall kept his back against the wall and glanced around the corner seeing at least four guys, he took a breath and came around the corner firing his remaining two bullets hitting nothing but scaring the soldiers into taking cover. He made it right next to John who looked over and said," We gotta get outta here."

"I was actually planning on staying," Marshall commented as he calmly pulled six more bullets out of his pockets and placed them in the gun.

John rolled his eyes and summoned『RIDE THE LIGHTNING』the stand floating ethereally behind him as he now crouched behind the wall. Marshall followed suit and activated『FOUGHT THE LAW』the familiar stripes spreading over the gun, he paused as he took a quick survey of the situation. One detail caught his eye as bullets began to hit their cover, sending bits of brick onto the two men. The black truck that was sitting in the parking lot was close enough that one of them could get to it and attempt...to...hard wire it. Marshall adjusted how he was sitting to look at John who sent a bolt of electricity flying at the mercenaries, not hitting anything."John...can you hot wire a car."

Another hail of gunfire tried interrupted his response, but John manage to rush the response out, "Yeah...I think I can."

Marshall returned fire before pulling out his speed re loader and responding," Think or know?"

The gunfire started again but John reached a hand over the wall and sent a quick bolt of lightning forced the two groups back into their tentative stalemate. John flexed his hand as it spasmed a little bit,"Know….Yeah, Yeah I know."

Marshall glared at John but a large chunk of brick coming off the wall influenced his next words heavily. " Best chance we have," Marshall rolled his shoulders," On three you run for the car and I'll keep them busy."

John gave a thumbs up as Marshall took a breath, "One," The hammer clicked back on the pistol," Two,"『FOUGHT THE LAW』activated, the familiar lines crossing the Model 27," THREE!"

'_Guilty of Attempted Murder," _Marshall thought as he surged to his feet, turning, and squeezing the trigger. He was vaguely aware of John scrambling towards the truck, but he was focused on the now empty chamber that he was reloading. He focused on the bullets as they arced towards the closest mercenary, four impacted the wall he had taken cover behind but two rounded the bend and seemed to hit home based on the yell of pain. Marshall was vaguely aware of the fact that he had reloaded his gun, but honestly it was just entirely muscle memory. New bullets began to fly towards him but to him it was almost in slow motion, and he just moved to the side as the bullets impacted the concrete barrier he had been standing behind. He squeezed off his next six shots in quick succession deciding to keep the same charge. Six more bullets flew all arcing towards the next closest mercenary, but unfortunately the angle the bullets had drove them into the concrete half-wall he had been crouching behind. Suddenly a noise, specifically an engine starting to his right, and he slammed his last speed re loader into the chamber and fired again, the bullets arcing in multiple directions. He worked his way towards the truck as the mercenaries came out from their cover and began to fire again. He abandoned the shooting and threw himself into the trunk banging his shins hard but avoiding any of the bullets that hit the ground where he was. He landed in the trunk hard and quickly screamed," GO, GO, GO!"

Marshall slammed into the back of the trunk, a silent prayer that it didn't fly open, and his pistol fell out of his hand and started to roll around. He fought his way to his feet and started to crawl forward, but a shiny black object caught his eye. He grabbed it with his hand and nearly cheered for joy, a SIG 550. He grabbed the gun and struggled to his feet one hand grabbing the gear rack on top of the hood as the wind whipped through his hair . He looked down towards the window and tapped it with the barrel of the gun. A second later the window opened," Turns out I do know how to hot wire a car."

Marshall wanted to laugh but a sudden gunshot drew him out of his reverie. He turned and saw a black van spinning out of the truck stop and after them, a man hanging out of the window with a similar looking gun. He turned back and leaned into the window, as John asked," Whats the plan?"

Marshall glanced back at the approaching van before turning back with a blank expression on his face," Try to catch up with Joy...and ignore the gunfire."

Marshall turned away from the window and braced his back against the cab as John tried to yell something at him. Marshall looked at the van approaching before reaching down and yanking the cloth off whatever it was covering, and he was incredibly thankful that his guess was right: More SIG's and ammo. He felt something hit his foot as he was grabbing a few magazines, and a quick glance down revealed his old and faithful Model 27. He snatched it up and put it in it's holster and glanced over the top of the cab where he now saw massive traffic because of a smoldering wreck. John swerved into the nearest open lane as Marshall brought the gun to his shoulder, and looked down the sights.

* * *

**STAND STATS**\- 『DRAGULA』

User: Robbie "Rob" Zieger

Strength: D

Speed: A

Range: D

Durability: A

Precision: A

Potential: D

『DRAGULA』is a stand that activates whenever Rob gets into a motor vehicle. The stand alters the state of any vehicle into the 'DRAGULA' style where the color turns black, wheels turn to flames, and the maximum speed increases two fold. There is no way to monitor speed in the vehicle so it is up to the user to guesstimate their speed. The new vehicle is also able to move in ways that the vehicle shouldn't and gains supernatural turning and control as long as the user doesn't lose their handle on the vehicle

User History: Rob Zeiger was born 1970 in Detroit, Michigan and very quickly took a liking to cars. The love of cars continued and eventually led him to street racing and that ended him in prison at age 18. Through a series of luck (Or unlucky depending on perspective) events Rob ended up as one of the prisoners Mortis was using for experiments. All the others died but Rob survived and began to 'work',under the threat of death, for Mortis as a mover, driver, and all around transportation source. He is not one of Mortis main members and is incredibly aware of how little Mortis cares for his life, and is incredibly terrified of Owen Spring who almost killed when he tried to escape on his 19th birthday.


	6. Chapter 6

Marshall felt the truck cut hard to the right weaving through the standstill practice, he grabbed harder on the roof rack and hip fired. Neither car had been able to do much as there were enough cars to use as shields, though he did find it odd that there was actually a trail to follow. The truck straightened out again and he took the opportunity to use both hands to fire. "Jesus Christ!"

Marshall spun forward and felt his jaw drop," HOW THE FUCK DID WE CATCH UP?!"

He couldn't help but agree with John, there really was no way they should have caught up with the two dueling cars unless the enemy was playing with them… and if he was playing with them at what felt like 96 miles per hour, he didn't want to find out how fast he could go.

His attention came back to the familiar van that was swerving back and forth as it attempted to avoid being pitted by a car with spinning flames for wheels, '_Yeah, that's a stand.'_ Marshall quickly glanced to his right and saw the reason there was traffic; The road looked like it had been obliterated by explosives . The truck swerved hard to avoid the concrete almost sending Marshall out of the trunk and into the waiting tires of the mercenary van. The truck swerved over to the right side of the road and marshall brought the gun to his shoulder and fired across the two lane highway. Bullets hit the van but the bullet proof glass lived up to its name preventing any real damage. Marshall decided to switch tactics and lined up a shot at the tire when the sound of screeching rubber filled the air and hi-their van slid right in front of his shot. The truck accelerated forward forcing Marshall to grab the roof rack as he began to slide. He looked up and quickly figured out why John had almost killed him; The stand-car was trying to cut them off, but John was apparently trying to pit maneuver it instead. The cloth covering on the ammo crate flew off and revealed a small rear portin the back of the trucks cab. Marshall took the butt of the gun and smashed the window open at the precise time John went for the pit. The front bumper met the rear of the stand-car, and Marshall was forced to latch on to the broken port in order to avoid going over the edge of the trunk. "Mother Fu-," he yelled out as the glass pierced his hand.

Marshall fought back to his feet in time to see the hot-rod stand-car spin around and begin going in reverse as good as a stunt driver could. There was no skidding and no struggling in how the car was handled, in fact it almost looked like the car was skating on the concrete as it pulled the spin off."What's the plan here?" John asked over a glass covered shoulder, panic seeping into his voice.

Marshall stood up and quickly fired the SIG in a burst at the opposing car only to hit air as it suddenly spun back around to the proper direction and cut hard to the left, going onto the sand with almost no change in speed. Marshall pulled the magazine out and threw it onto the road, that damn car had pulled that move off in the time it took the bullets to travel the distance, only nine feet away. Marshall was drawn out of his pondering when the stand cut hard and collided with the side of truck sending him to the ground and scattering the bullets he had in his pockets. He quickly got back to his knees and opened fire on the side of the stand-car. The bullets all impacted closely together only denting the metal that comprised the door, but it did disengage from them with a tearing sound following. Marshall scrambled over to the edge of the trunk and looked over the side to see several cruel looking hooks retract underneath the car. Marshall fired the remaining bullets in the gun but the car slammed the brakes and stopped on a dime to avoid the bullets. The car slid behind the truck as Marshall turned towards the broken window port," Don't let him hit us! He's trying to hook."

John glanced up into the left side mirror," Yeah, I don't have as much control of that as you think."

Marshall peered inside the cab and saw the speedometer maxed out and Johns foot attempting to push the pedal further to the floor. He turned back and saw the stand-car gaining effortlessly, flames spitting out of the exhaust pipes on the sides. He slammed another magazine in the SIG before firing, getting the driver to cut to the right to avoid before sliding comfortably back behind the truck. Marshall took the half empty cartridge out and put a full one in the SIG," I see what you mean."

He could have sworn John laughed as he got back to his feet and shouldered the SIG. The stand-car began to sway back and forth, Marshall exhaled and in a fluid movement he squeezed the trigger and sent about three bullets at the front right tire. Marshall had aimed for the exact moment he swerved back to the left and had banked on his inability to swerve as he was already swaying. He felt a thin grin hit his face as he saw the bullets hit the flaming tire...only to feel the same smirk turn into a grimace as the bullets went through the fire as if it was just fire, admittedly he should have figured that. The car speed forward looking to ram the back of the truck again but Marshall fired, once again keeping his grouping close together and putting another dent in the car, in the hood this time. Only this time the car didn't dodge, it committed and rammed the back of the car getting the prime opportunity to sink it's hooks into the bumper. Marshall threw an arm out to try and catch himself, the only issue it was the hand that was holding the SIG. His ears picked out the tell tale clattering over the roar of the opposing cars engine. " God Damn-IT," Marshall yelled as the car suddenly was yanked to the right dangerously close to the metal railing.

He heard metal scraping on metal as his hand found the holster for the model 27. He tried to struggle to his feet but the trunk was swaying too much for him to have any sort of footing. So he just vaguely aimed the gun over the tailgate and fired where he believed the windshield was. The engine grew quieter very suddenly so he assumed he hit something with the six bullets he shot. Marshall caught his breath as he laid in the trunk, the pain from landing on the ground actually catching up to him. It was only a few seconds before he clambered back to his feet and looked ahead down the road and saw the first signal they were approaching the address; a bridge. The engine sounded much closer as he turned around, quickly reloading the pistol and firing while declaring, '_Guilty of Grand Theft Auto." _The bullets arced towards the car, but once again the car turned on a dime and the bullets were moving too fast to adjust themselves and simply embedded themselves in the concrete. He grabbed his last speed reloader and slammed it into the gun as the truck shifted over the the left leaving it's right side wide open. Marshall turned to yell at John, " What the hell ar-"

He stopped short as John's plan suddenly clicked in his head; with the bridge upcoming John was going to get the stand-car to come along that side and ram it into the wall. Marshall glanced over his shoulder and saw it begin to pull up along side of them, right as they were making it to the bridge. Marshall gripped tight on the roof rack as John cut the wheel, cut it hard, and made to slam the bastard into the wall. It inched close to the wall, but Marshall couldn't help but gape as the stand-car transitioned to DRIVING ON THE WALL losing no speed. In fact it seemed to accelerate and pass them while driving across the wall. Only about a second later the car jumped from the side of the wall right in front of the truck cracking the concrete. He heard John loud and clear yelling," WHAT IN THE HELL!"

Marshall went to respond but the front of the was backed into slamming Marshall's ribs into the back of the cab. The groan he let out was overshadowed by the sound of the metal hooks impaling the front bumper, though more pressing was the fact that John no longer had control. The truck began to swing back and forth, John was trying to fight it based on the sound the tires were making and the acrid smell of rubber. Another hard jerk to the left pried his hand off the roof rack and sent him down into the trunk again, his ribs not loving the impact. He attempted to struggle to his feet but the constant jerking off the truck kept him down on the truck bed. It seemed like forever but suddenly he was no longer in the bed of the truck but then again he was no longer in anything. Time seemed to slow as he felt his body go into the air and he couldn't help but notice the completely crushed bumper against a concrete lane divider. He vaguely caught sight of a blue and metallic silver figure flash into existence, but his mental process was soon interrupted by his body hitting the concrete and his consciousness going to black.

* * *

Jason honestly couldn't have been happier when Marshall and John caught up with them. The attempt to go through the desert to lose the stand-car or whatever had initially backfired, allowing their car to get hooked. Joy had put up a good fight creating chains to try and ensnare it, but the car maneuvered through the chains...sometimes on only two wheels. He had decided to weave through traffic to lose it, but all that amounted to was a different car getting slammed into them. He managed to avoid most of the damage but everybody inside was still thrown around a bit with Joy headbutting the window knocking herself out. Though Seth had managed to hold on to his seat and immediately sent out『BALLROOM BLITZ』to try to blind the driver and buy them some time. However the car apparently was made by Jesus Christ because it launched itself up into the air shattering the concrete and causing a three car pile up and avoiding the blue swarm of beetles. Now as they switched opponents he couldn't have been more grateful, despite the fact that his stand was damn near useless against the guns. "Son of a-", Jason swore as they were rammed by the other van.

He was dimly aware of 『BALLROOM BLITZ』activating and several of the 'beetles' flying out of the car and landing on the mercenaries' car. " Hey...are they able see my stand?."

"Why the hell does that matter?" Jason responded incredulously as he slowed down trying to avoid the hail of bullets," We have slightly more pressing issues."

"Answer the question, cause I might have a plan!" Seth yelled from the back trying to keep Joy from falling back onto the floor.

Jason swerved the car again, making Seth's efforts pointless before he responded," No, No they can't!"

Another hail of bullets came from the mercenary van, thankfully not impacting any tires (God knows how they hadn't hit one yet). Jason glanced out the window and nearly drove head on into a pothole when he saw the full swarm of beetles that comprised『BALLROOM BLITZ』settle on to the mercenary van, and just begin to rip into the metal. Small pieces of the roof began to peel back, six beetles barely managing to pry open a gap about an inch wide caused by Marshall earlier but it was enough. Their car pulled ahead as Seth began to cackle madly, Jason looked into the rear view mirror, and saw the blue beetles filter through the gap. Only a second later Seth's cackling laughter was highlighted by flashes of light from inside the mercenary van followed by it careening hard into the ditch along the side of the road, the car performing a gymnastics routine for a few seconds before colliding with the ground. Seth finally stopped laughing and Jason asked over his shoulder," What the hell was that?"

Seth smirked," That was『BALLROOM BLITZ』ability."

There was a small silence before Jason angrily asked," Well, can you explain it please? Cause it's ability is either to magically control guns or it's something else."

Seth sheepishly rubbed the back of his head," Sorry, old habits die hard, when it bites people it incites fury and they just go after the closest person."

Jason couldn't help but chuckle under his breath at how damn terrifying that ability was. He could literally start a melee at the drop of a hat...more so the bite of a stand. He also thought back to when Owen sent Seth sky high with his explosion and how『BALLROOM BLITZ』managed to save him from most of the damage. In fact….That was an ability that Mortis would have wanted to use, given how jacked up he was in the mind and his adoration for manipulation. The car passed under a bridge and he heard Joy begin to stir before she quickly asked," Where's the Mercenaries?"

Jason responded, looking over his shoulder," Seth took care of it, well he got them to take care of it."

Joy went to respond, but stopped short and pointed out the front window," There's the fucker!"

Jason swung his attention back forward and slammed the breaks, nearly knocking Joy out again, to avoid the wreck in front of them. He quickly picked out Marshall lying unconscious face up on the ground, he very quickly picked up on the moving of his chest so at least he was still alive. A familiar sound of metal on metal reached their ears drawing their attention from the downed team leader to the standing John staring down a familiar vehicle. They could see the blue and grey humanoid standing behind mimicking the stance John held as electricity began to arc across his body. Joy and Seth spoke up at the same time, " What is he doing?"

Jason really had no idea. Joy had tried to catch it with chains made of asphalt but it had weaved or just torn straight through them like they weren't even there. Seth had at one point tried to use 『BALLROOM BLITZ』but the beetles had just splattered harmlessly against the windshield, or got incinerated by the tires. He hadn't even bothered to try 『HERE COMES REVENGE』because it was a close range physical stand and he was damn near positive that it's ability wasn't going to work. He snapped out of his thoughts when a loud screeching noise reached his ears and saw...whatever the hell Johns stand was making the noise as more and more electricity shot off its body as the car began to speed towards John.

* * *

John had tried, tried so hard, to keep the truck from impacting against the concrete divider to no avail. He immediately regretted not wearing his seat belt, but unlike most people he was able to get 『RIDE THE LIGHTNING』to save him by taking the brunt of the impact. As he went through the windshield, a thousand tiny cuts appearing all over his arms, he briefly had heard Marshall yelling above him. 『RIDE THE LIGHTNING』dissipated and he forced himself to his feet, shaken up and with blood in his eyes, and looked down the road to see the damn car do a quick spin around. "Marshall," He wheezed out, yep those ribs hadn't healed," Can you move?"

A second later there was no reply and that answered the question of what he should do next; Wing It. The car began to spin its tires, but a sudden jolt ran through his brain a new...old...an idea came into his head. He had no idea where this idea came from, but he was quite literally out of options. If he tried to dodged then Marshall was definitely going to get run over, and if he didn't dodge there was a chance that he and Marshall lived...an incredibly small one, but it was some sort of shot.『RIDE THE LIGHTNING』came forth and John grabbed a piece of rebar that had been knocked loose when they collided with the divider. He honestly was happy that this brat was toying with them, if he hadn't been then they may have been killed a while ago and with this half baked idea he needed all the help he could get. Honestly calling it an idea was too much credit, it was more of a theory, hypothesis, idea, it was an idea.

The car kept spinning it's flaming tires as John leaned back holding the rebar like a javelin and amped 『RIDE THE LIGHTNING』's voltage up all the way, the ammeter in it's chest climbing to red. The electricity cascaded all around him with the two metallic arms forming a tunnel from behind him helping him aim directly at the car. The voltage kept climbing as the car took off down the road heading straight for him. He felt oddly calm as he contorted his body to throw the rebar, like the motion was very familiar for him. As he threw it he let loose a yell that overlapped with the exact same yell that『RIDE THE LIGHTNING』let loose. He felt the rebar leave his hand accelerating with an insane amount of speed, generating a crack like a rifle bullet. The difference was that a rifle wouldn't have done anything to the super tough car, but this piece of rebar decimated the hood, the engine, and the cab, only narrowly missing the cab.

The destroyed car parts scattered around him, and he was able to make out the look of pure bewilderment on the drivers face as he went flying over John's shoulder and hit the ground behind him in a roll. Though when the brat stopped rolling he didn't move, just layed there staring up into the sky. John tried to turn to face him, but he felt his legs just give out, like his brain just wasn't connected to his nervous system anymore. He managed to turn his body and see Jason, Joy, and Seth running up and a series of asphalt chains wrapping and holding the brat to the ground. "Took ya guys long enough," He managed to speak out, feeling returning to the top of his body.

Jason smirked as he dropped down next to Marshall with Joy as Seth came over and helped him to the ground as feeling was still missing from his lower half. As he hit the concrete Seth asked," What the hell was that?"

John went all the way down laying on his back, and as sirens could be heard in the distance and Marshall groaned," I literally have no idea, but damn am I glad I came up with it."

* * *

**STAND STATS**\- 『BALLROOM BLITZ』

User: Seth Krokus

Strength: C(Each of the beetles is capable of breaking skin with a bite)

Speed: C

Range: B

Durability: D

Precision: B

Potential: B

『BALLROOM BLITZ』is a swarm like stand that appears as blue flying beetles , specifically resembling stag beetles. When the full swarm is summoned there are 112 'beetles', each beetle is capable of biting a person and using it's main ability which sends the target into a fury, and makes them ignore physical damage as they try to hurt anything nearby. The more of the 'beetles' that attach to a target the more fury there is and the more the target will try to kill anything nearby. They aren't durable at all as a hard slap from a person could destroy them, if they could hit them. Another benefit of 『BALLROOM BLITZ』is that damage dealt to the stand is not shared with the user, but the 'beetles' do not return immediately but come back in approximately four minutes

User History: Seth Krokus was one of Mortis kidnapped victims that were kept in the Alcatraz lab, but Prior to that he was an archivist working for the government. In that capacity he was able to use his intelligence to manipulate his coworkers and even his superior into giving him what he wants. He had a tendency to manipulate people outside of his job, generally criminals, in order to gain more money. That's actually what put him on Morits's radar and led to him being shot with the golden gun and kidnapped. During the three months that he was held captive prior to rescue, he was able to talk with another prisoner. Her and the general direness of the situation made him reevaluate his life and to try to do something for somebody other than himself.


	7. Chapter 7

Seth sat on the concrete divider surrounded by various car parts as Marshall was filling out an official report to be handed into his superiors at the F.B.I, or something along those lines, he really stopped paying attention when John had suddenly dropped to the ground. There was an awkward sort of kinship that was forged in the shared survival of Alcatraz. Though admittedly he had entirely debated throwing John under the bus to give Marshall what he wanted, but he had made a promise. He leaned his head back and stared up towards the sky; She really hadn't deserved what happened to her, a fourth grade teacher and someone who fully believed in the good of people. She was basically the complete opposite of him, a manipulative bastard, and really was the first person who could have been considered his….friend. He snapped out of his emotional reverie as Joy walked up with a water bottle," Thanks, but why exactly aren't we rushing to the address ."

" Mortis is paranoid beyond belief," She responded as she took a drink," He keeps his projects separate and doesn't let his people know what's really going on."

Seth chuckled a bit at Joys pissed off expression before asking," Is that why Owen didn't know about our stands?"

Joy passed him the bottle of water," Probably...that's generally why Mortis only gets involved when he really cares about the 'experiment'."

Seth put the lid back on the bottle and paused letting the ambulance continue to wail as they checked up on Marshall. The word experiment had made him think; John and him had been test subjects in whatever experiment had been running. When an experiment is over what happens...you get rid of the experiments, at least when they're animals. So either Mortis failed or…"Hey Joy?"

"Yeah"

"Mortis isn't the kind to give up is he," Seth asked feeling slightly nervous.

She snorted," Yeah no, he's like an insane collector. Once something has found his interest he does everything he can to gain it, at least until it's use is gone."

Seth sighed heavily before letting his thoughts run. Mortis went about cleaning house, a house full of stand users that he went to a lot of trouble to create and kidnap, and was moving his operation across the country, based on the fact trucks full of equipment. Basically meaning that he probably figured out whatever his project was, and considering how volatile and psychotic he was…...it probably concerned the entire country. Seth looked up and glanced over at Marshall who was helping get the kid, Rob or something, into a police car. He took in Marshall's face, the undertones of grim fear and determination coming through to him and he was able to tell Marshall knew. Seth paused and decided to make a call, he didn't tell Joy. Normally he wouldn't care about what others felt and he would try to put himself in an advantageous position, but he decided to keep quiet and trust Marshall. It was an odd sensation for him to actually but faith in a person, generally he thought all people were varying degrees of bastards, but something about this group made him think they were genuinely good people. "Hey, You guys all good, or do you want to get checked out while the people with actual medical equipment are here."

Seth looked up as Jason meandered over, John limping slightly behind, as Joy responded," Nah, I'm not concussed and bug boy here didn't get hit."

John made it up to the group," Lucky you, feels like I got hit by the car."

Seth chuckled before asking," So what's the plan?"

"We're going to check out the base once the cops pull out," Marshall interrupted walking over," For once we are a step ahead."

"What about John here," Jason asked gesturing," His body is still beat from his Zeus impression and you, I'm pretty sure, have several broken ribs."

Both John and Marshall began to protest, but a second later Seth interrupted, " Why don't we go in quiet and have you two as back up?"

Marshall and John both looked at him weirdly, he sighed despite the fact their looks were warranted; both were front line fighters capable of dealing and taking damage to a degree. But both were beat to hell after reenacting Duel the magical re imagining and it was fairly obvious neither would be at full strength. He continued talking ignoring the weird looks," Look, if both of you go into a fight with Leen or the skinny brat you are only going to take more damage."

Both Marshall and John wanted to interject, but Jason beat them to it, " Okay, I know you two don't want to sit out of the fight, but he has a point. Marshall you're basically running on painkillers and spite, while John is just running on determination and stupidity."

Joy cut in next," Look, the three of us aren't injured and our stands are good at taking opponents down quickly...well two out of three are," she finished looking at Jason."

Marshall cut in," But-"

Jason took control again cutting Marshall off," Before you start….We have the advantage and we need to use it. You know that Mortis keeps everybody quiet and doesn't let them communicate unless absolutely necessary. So based on what that kid told us the place expects a shipment in two days and that's it."

Marshall took a deep breath before talking," Fine...you three can go in first and scout it out, but we are going to be ready to come in and help."

Seth nodded before making his way to the car with Joy, who had a wicked smile on her face. He was looking forward at getting an opportunity to gouge at the organization that fucked him up

* * *

Joy vaulted over the fence with ease before making her way to the back of the warehouse the address led them to. It had taken them a bit too long to find it as the address didn't seem to exist, but John had managed his Sherlock trick again and got them to it eventually. They had decided to split up, after leaving the car, in order to cover extra ground with the instructions to make some noise if things go wrong. She said a silent prayer that they wouldn't as she activated 『ALICE IN CHAINS』manifesting chains out of the glass window removing them from the equation so she could climb through unabated. It was a nifty trick that she had learned when trying to sneak out when she was younger, though the only issue is that Marshall is a dick and wouldn't let her drink. Her feet hit the floor silently as her knees absorbed the shock, before she took off into the warehouse.

"There we go," She muttered out loud as she found the stairwell.

The plan they had come up with wasn't her personal favorite, but Marshall and John refused to not be involved. So in the spirit of compromise, Seth, her, and Jason were taking the first second and third floors respectively. The compromise came from the hour and a half time limit they had before the two old and injured people made their way into the building. She sighed as she crept down the stairs. It wasn't that she didn't understand Marshall but she knew that he wasn't okay. He always preached to her that she shouldn't push her body to the point where it would destroy itself and yet he was trying to conduct a raid on the enemy base on a handful of painkillers and spite. She guessed she just couldn't understand his motivation she decided as she stepped out onto the second floor. There was one scientist standing in the hall facing another direction and flipping through a magazine. She smirked devilishly as『ALICE IN CHAINS』activated and extended forward towards the unsuspecting man. In a quick fluid movement it struck forward and slapped it's ethereal hand over the mans face, smothering his mouth and making it hard to breath. He tried to break free but her stand was much, much stronger and only a few seconds later the man was unconscious. 『ALICE IN CHAINS』pulled the limp body to where Joy was waiting in the stairwell before disappearing back into nothingness. She kept her steps light as she entered into the hallway looking for whatever room the man's key card would open. It took a few, eight, different doors but eventually one opened and she quickly stepped inside.

She looked around the office...lab...no, definitely an office, before going over to the desk and quickly sorting through the papers. She noticed one paper in particular that detailed something called 'ANIMA TRANSPLANT SYSTEM'. It depicted a singular device that looked very interesting, but she couldn't make heads or tails of it. She rolled it up and slid it into her bag, before grabbing a folder that had the word 'INCOME' written on the tab. There was a loud yell from the hall as guards suddenly ran past to the room she was hiding, she guessed towards the stairs.

"Look, all I heard over the radio was that everybody was going berserk," said a passing guard as Joy crouched behind the door, trying very hard to not chuckle.

'_I really want to know how he screwed this up'_

* * *

Seth awkwardly threw himself through the open window, going into a poor attempt at a roll. He got his feet back under him and made it into the hallway before he began to stalk off towards the loading docks, the soreness from the last two days coming forward. The all too familiar sound of buzzing appeared in the back of his mind as he worked his way past multiple empty offices that all reminded him of Alcatraz. He forced it back down as he came up on a corner and rounded it; '_Where in the hell is the loading dock!'._ He had guessed that that window would be close to the docks but the long, straight, and infuriating hallway made him say otherwise. It also wasn't really helping with the time limit that he had been strong armed into, since Marshall and John refused to stay out of a fight even if it would be good for them.

He came out of his reminiscing of 13 minutes prior as he checked a hall directory sign he had just stumbled into. He checked his path and changed directions because he was apparently completely wrong, though this layout didn't make any sense….shit. It suddenly hit him as to why this damn building seemed so confusing; It was a Labyrinth. This floor meant that anything trying to get out of the building was going to have to try to guess where the exit was. This place was like Alcatraz, well after Mortis got his hands on it of course. More experiments were being done here as well but these people were probably already dead since nobody knew they were missing. He came to a door at the end of the hallway and exhaled deeply before opening the door wide since it was just to another hallway…...except it wasn't since he miscounted doors and missed a damaged frame and was now in the shipping docks staring at about sixteen mercenaries. There was a moment where he held the vain hope that he may be able to back into the hallway and sneak away, but the combination of yelling and bullet fire changed his mind. As he dove behind a crate with all twenty of『BALLROOM BLITZ'S』beetles coming forward, though four of them immediately popped into nothingness as bullets hit them. He silently cursed his stand durability before he stood up and sent the rest of his beetles forward, '_Though I do love this part.' _

The remaining sixteen flew forward into the gunfire, getting about six more of them killed, but the remaining ten did what they do best. With their pincers dug in deep on ten of the armed guards making their eyes go red and causing them to go berzerk. The remaining twenty 'beetles' of 『BALLROOM BLITZ』came forward as he quickly dashed for the next piece of cover, his big idea being to let someone else do all the work while he just played defense with his remaining 'beetles'. A sudden loud blaring noise dashed those hopes before the mercenaries even called out; " Quick someone get the boss there's some weird stuff flying around."

Seth took a few seconds to examine his situation as bullets began to fly everywhere. He could either A) stay and fight taking out the guards and eventually take on one of the leaders, or B) Run and hide. He quickly made his call and dove back into the hallway he came from hitting the ground as several bullets came close to hitting him, only barely being caught by two of his remaining 'beetles'. He scrambled back to his feet and and took off back down the hallway, since while the mercenaries were busy he could at least raid a few of the labs and see what happened to the poor people who were here. It honestly sickened him how casually Mortis seemed to slaughter and try to erase these people from existence, he couldn't imagine what the man himself was like.

* * *

Victor Mortis was very annoyed, in part because his favorite scalpel just broke but more so because of the very annoying alarm that was sounding. He threw the broken instrument onto the ground before grabbing a cloth to wipe his hands off. He turned towards the nearby table and looked towards his associate, who was removing his black dress shoes from the table, and asked," What alarm is this exactly because I'm positive Rod and Hetfield set the timers for eight hours?"

"Pretty sure that it's the intruder alarm," The man, who was in his early twenties, stretched his arms above his head," Want me to grab Priest and Hetfield to deal with it?"

Mortis threw the now bloody rag away as he sighed," Just take Priest, radio Hetfield and tell him to start the truck."

Mortis grabbed a folder and stuffed it into his briefcase before continuing," I'm fairly positive that the Alcatraz caravan isn't showing up at any point so we should just hurry to Kentucky to help get the relevant data for Living Colour there so the procedure can get up and running.."

He trailed off, but his associate smirked and continued," And then it's on to Powerslave, well I'll be off."

The associate left as Mortis nodded before reaching into the briefcase and removing a golden gun, on the side of which there was an arrow pattern almost engraved. He looked it over before walking out of the door and towards a secondary staircase that would take him straight to the shipping bay. He took the steps two at a time, his long gangly legs and six foot four frame assisting in the effort. He eventually made it to the shipping bay and opened the door, his green hair brushing the frame, but paused when he saw several dead mercenaries, scratch that all his mercenaries were dead. It seemed as if they had killed each other and if the blue beetle he saw scuttle in a man's shirt was anything to go by it was probably a stand. He sighed, "Of course these people can't even handle something like this. Don't let anyone get inside or leave alive, and they end up killing themselves. Shittiest investment I made, well at least they can be of some help now."

Suddenly one of the corpses began to rise into a sitting position before getting up all the way. Mortis only smirked before gesturing to a large crate that held some of the worthwhile equipment from the base. The reanimated corpse moved briskly towards the crate, and as if it's torso wasn't half decimated hauled it up and began walking behind Mortis who only paused when a feeble cough caught his attention. He peered around a destroyed crate that thankfully didn't have anything important inside of it and saw a living mercenary. The man looked up and Mortis caught a view of his name tag, something covered in blood Cassidy. The man began to speak but before he could Mortis had shot him with the golden gun, the arrow on the side glowing slightly. The man looked shocked before falling over as Mortis just walked away saying," Just die already, your services aren't needed anymore."

He walked out of the bay and saw a shipping truck with the back open and a very nervous Hetfield sitting in the driver seat. Mortis directed the corpse to the back and clambered into the passenger seat, deactivating his stand and letting the corpse collapse to the ground dead once more. Hetfield looked over and nervously asked," Where are the others?"

"Keeping the intruders busy," Mortis began," But if you're asking about the guards they are all dead, or they will be, the bomb goes off in an hour and thirty minutes, not three hours."

Hetfield looked over at Mortis with shock evident on his face, but he quickly turned forward and started the truck. Mortis almost laughed, but he kept it to a chuckle as he looked over paperwork. Hetfield should know by now that once you outlive your usefulness there's no point to having you around anymore...especially when you fail at the simple tasks you are given, '_Which reminds me I need to meet up with Zieger if he hasn't killed himself already when this is over.'_

As the truck began to move he flipped through the files in his hands quickly skimming over the various formulas and jargon he had jotted down. These two projects had been very draining as of late now that they were nearing completion and other groups in the underworld were actually bothering to take notice of what seemed like a relatively weak organization. Passione, Whatever was left of Dio's fan club, and Century, hell he might as well include Black Label Society on that list at this point. He had worked with them for a brief period to get the project up and running before he bailed and they may now be interested. He honestly couldn't pick a group to be considered the worst for him to face...though with passione he was confident he could outwit their terrifying leader. Certainly wasn't something he wanted to test, though he may have to if that damn FBI agent keeps succeeding at getting just enough information to fill in the blanks. Normally killing the target with another groups method is enough to make the authorities look the wrong direction, but this bastard was able to read between the lines and get enough info to be nipping at his heels. It was almost admirable if would amount to anything since much like the others he would inevitably end up just another corpse in the world.

* * *

**STAND STATS**\- 『?』

User: Victor Mortis

Strength:?

Speed: ?

Range: C

Durability: ?

Precision: ?

Potential: A

?

User History: Victor Mortis was an abnormal medical student and blooming killer on his way to graduating when a chance encounter introduced him to the vampiric Dio. Fascinated with the power of stand Mortis took the risk and was able to gain a stand, he was then able to receive an arrow with which he was supposed to raise Dio an army. Mortis however had different ideas and he instead began to test the limits of what both the arrow and a stand was capable of all with the goal of completing his ultimate projects Living Colour and Powerslave, and surpassing the man who first gave him this power. Overall he's a ruthless, pragmatic, and cunning bastard who only works with people as long as they continue to be useful and when you are not he cuts your life short or begins his experiments on you and your stand.


	8. Chapter 8

Jason silently opened the supply closet door and slid out once the guards had meandered around the corner, unfortunately while hiding he had ended up next to the leaking cleaning supplies so now he reeked of lemony freshness. He winced as he caught of whiff of himself but ignored it and headed for the stairs, 『HERE COMES REVENGE』a second away from being summoned. He shoved the door open and began to make his way down towards the second floor, ignoring the door that he assumed actually went to the shipping bay. He was silently debating meeting up with Joy and helping her cover it, but they had all agreed to this plan and he decided to stick with it. Though in hindsight he had to admit that having them all enter at different areas didn't work out well. Especially since he had climbed in through a window by the shipping bay and couldn't find the damn staircase for like five minutes. Silently he hoped that Joy and Seth were having better luck than him given their time limit. Normally even he wouldn't follow it this closely, but with John and Marshall both more injured than what seemed normal and itching to get into the currently non existing fray it made more sense to stick to it. Hell if they could get out of this scenario without triggering any-he was cut off suddenly by the blaring of an alarm; "God damn it Murphy."

Jason doubled back up the stairs towards the entrance he had come through. A quick pull of the handle told him all the info he needed; the door was now locked. He spun around towards the other door on the landing and quickly walked over to it. As he was reaching for the handle a bullet ripped through the thin door, missing him by a mile but being startling nonetheless. Jason ducked away back down the steps as more gunfire echoed from the room. As he made it back to the second level he glanced through the window into the hallway he was able to see a door open. He paused for half a second as an all too familiar figure exited the room, he had only ever seen him in photo's or artistic representations but they really didn't give him insight to how unsettling the man was.

Jason would have continued staring but the fact that Mortis was rapidly approaching the door made him quickly duck below the door and take off down the steps towards the third and lowest level. He paused on the steps and looked up when he heard a voice sound out over the alarm, seemingly talking on an intercom," Testin' one-two-three, one-two and a three. Priest if you hear this deal with whoever is tryin to sneak around."

The man seemed to heavily sigh before walking towards the door, though there wasn't the tell-tale swoosh of the door opening. Now Jason was faced with a dilemma; Does he try to run around and find Joy or Seth, or does he try to get whatever he can from the third floor. He quickly made the decision to summon『HERE COMES REVENGE』and have it decimate the door so he can get into the third floor easier. He had faith that Joy and Seth would be able to escape in time, and this was the endgame where they couldn't let any possible advantage disappear. He took off down the darker hallway and gradually felt the air grow cooler as he progressed farther down, until he was eventually staring at wall upon wall of server banks. He nearly froze in his steps before doubling down and making his way towards a nearby room. Inside he found a room covered in various pieces of paper with what he guessed were scientific principles, though he was able to identify the medical terminology on the paper. It was used oddly though, as if it wasn't referring to physical qualities but something intangible based on the wording. He closed the door behind him and began trying to make sense of the paper, the operative word being try.

* * *

Seth shoved some of the papers in his bag, he knew at least one of them had more information on where the funds were coming from. Based on what he could actually recognize it seemed that Mortis had been doing work for other criminal groups and had been siphoning extra money from those organizations. He looked over the desk again and grabbed a few pens before taking off into the hallway as fast as he could the intercom announcement coming over the radio. As he took off down the hallway heading towards what the signs called a break room. He rounded the corner into the break room when there was a sudden whooshing sound before a pain exploded in his shoulder and his body flew across the room.『BALLROOM BLITZ』came forward on instinct and managed to cushion his landing and not get themselves destroyed somehow. Seth struggled to his feet, as an annoyingly familiar voice called out," I don't know how you lived , but I'll finish you off this time."

* * *

Joy tossed another stack of papers into her bag before quickly zipping it shut and throwing it over her shoulder. She had kept track of the time fairly well but the gun shots had quickly gone quiet, and the following alarm was not something she enjoyed hearing. She really didn't like the concept of their being other stand users here, especially ones she didn't know the skills of. She looked over a few more papers before the hairs on her neck suddenly stood up. She spun around and felt her eyes go wide; A white arm was coming through the wall aimed squarely at her head. 『ALICE IN CHAINS』exploded into existence and hauled her backward over the desk allowing the arm to narrowly miss her and leave an utterly decimated desk in its wake. She got her feet under her and quickly created chains out of the concrete floor and stood with her arms raised in a fighting stance. She nearly dropped the stance when she saw the rest of the stand and the user began to phase through the wall, almost as if he was materializing out of nothing. "Alright now who the hell are you."

The man readjusted his tie and smirked before responding," You can call me Free ."

She adjusted her footing," And your stand's name?"

He smirked and started to walk forward," And why would I make you privy to that?"

Joy grit her teeth before causing an explosion of concrete chains to rocket toward the man. He made no effort to dodge the assault, but as the chains made contact with him...they just didn't. The chains seemed to slip right through him before impacting into the wall hard enough to puncture deep in the drywall. He took advantage of her complete surprise and exploded forward moving like a ghost through her chains before getting in close and landing a brutal blow to her stomach as she tried to refocus her power. She slammed back into the wall with a cry of pain as Free returned to his walking pace. She struggled back to a standing position and spit out," What the hell was that ability?"

Free smirked," I don't know who you've fought but I don't make a habit of giving away any info to an opponent."

* * *

Seth dove to the side as Priest, whose name he finally remembered after he announced his name Priest and his stand 『TURBO LOVER』, exploded forward and attempted to throw a punch. He had gotten used to pattern that Priest was going for, but he had only been able to minimize the damage he was taking. Honestly he was only lasting this long because of the sharp corners and long hallways, in any sort of morenopen area he would be long dead. "You rat bastard I'm going to end you."

Seth turned back and fired the gun he had managed to pick up making Priest activate his stand to get out of the way. Seth summoned his stand, focused around his hand, and decided to take the fight to Priest. Admittedly this was a poor decision but he wasn't going to win this battle by running away, especially since even without stands he was still definitely slower. Priest turned and summoned the full form of 『TURBO LOVER』and threw a counter punch. In that moment an idea flashed through his mind and he went for it. He didn't bother to redirect his fist this time and instead let it come through undefended, breaking his hand, but allowing his beetles to grab onto the stands arm. He stumbled back in the world of pain hoping his gamble paid off. He was hoping that getting the beetles onto 『TURBO LOVER』would be able to induce the same rage in that getting a beetle onto a person would. Really he was banking on the fact that Priest seemed to need a cool down in between his stands use, sort of like how an Olympic sprinter goes a hundred percent for their race before taking a break. Seth was aiming for what happens when a person pushes their body to hard, internal damage...because he wasn't going to hit Priest without some sort of gamble. Seth looked up from his completely mauled hand to see Priest beginning to clutch his head, "How's that feel you bastard."

Seth wouldn't lie that he was enjoying the small amount of pain he was inflicting, but he almost immediately regretted his smack talk when all the air was forced out of him with a sudden punch to the gut. He slammed back into the table and began to greedily suck air in, never getting enough however. The all familiar whooshing noise filled the air and a fist impacted the ground an inch away from his head. He quickly over and managed to struggle to his feet before he was clipped with something that sent him spinning into the nearest looked over at Priest who was psychotically swaying back and forth with his stand seemingly having a seizure behind it. The beetles were dug in tight on the humanoid stands arm. He caught a glimpse of Priest's eyes, now glowing red like the sun and grit his teeth. A few more beetles spawned, what he really assumed were his remaining count, and he had one of them clamp down on the back of his neck. On anybody else it would drive them mad but on him it was just extreme painkillers or maybe some other drug he never really did any of those. The other beetles 'swarmed' around him as priest lurched forward and growled out," Die, Die, DIEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeee."

Seth launched the beetles forward, trying to make Priest counter all of them. Thankfully he did, his fists turning into blurs as his body accelerated faster, a left straight, a right hook, an uppercut, and suddenly the sound Seth had been banking on finally happened. An incredibly loud and violent tear sounded out and Priest suddenly fell to the ground, the pain taking him out of 『BALLROOM BLITZ』's control and letting the full brunt of his bodies pain hit at once. Though Seth wasn't doing to hot either, but at least he could still walk and walk he did, down the hallway towards the window he had broken in through. Priest screamed at him in but Seth paid it no mind as the pain he was in drowned out the noise. He sloppily rolled out the window and hit the ground, silently thanking the beetle that was still pinched on the back of his neck for keeping him awake. He stumbled down the alley simply trying to get back with the info he had, the hope that Joy and Jason could handle themselves burning in the back of his head. He stumbled forward seven more steps towards the edge of the alley where the car had been parked when he suddenly felt all control leave his legs, '_Ahhh here it is'_. The damage he had sustained finally was doing what it should have been making him...Fall…...Unconscious.

As his body lost consciousness and he fell forward out of the alley with the complete nothingness embracing him.

* * *

Joy spun back and lashed out with another concrete chain that much to her infatuation the annoying bastard just phased through again. She had managed to clip him once but she wasn't really sure how she had managed to even do that at this point. She backed up into the hallway with dozens of more concrete chains coming up from the floor to serve her. The man suddenly appeared in the hallways charging forward of her, his stand right behind him. She shot the chains forward in a violent arc, and once again felt anger fill her again as he effortlessly dodged and phased through them. She changed her strategy and slammed the chains into the ground cracking the concrete and generating enough of a cloud of dust to block their view of each other. She took the opportunity to retreat to what she figured was some sort of break room before panting out," Alright, what the hell?"

Somehow his stand afforded him the ability to either make materials ethereal as to not affect him, or he was able to turn ethereal and render materials useless. She didn't know which of the options was right, but she did know both basically fucked her over. She heard the tell tale footfalls as he began to make his way towards her, most likely to repeat the same pattern of her getting her ass kicked before retreating...unless she tried something drastic. As the footfalls grew closer she reached out, calling on that same feeling she had had in the truck stop showers. She felt 『ALICE IN CHAINS』reaching out beyond her normal range and take hold of something about the same time the man rounded the corner, his stand ready to go. As soon as she saw him she called for『ALICE IN CHAINS』to go for it. She couldn't help but smirk as there was a sudden sound of a harsh breeze ripping across the room before colliding with her opponent. She was a bit peeved that her new attack was partially blocked considering there was little to no way he should know it was coming. There was a sudden lull between the two combatants when the man examined the new cut along his arm." That's...new, I couldn't even see that one."

Joy tensed when he held up his other arm and seemed to check his watch before giving his attention back to her. "Well, Joy Jordan," She flinched as he casually dropped her name," as a reward my name is Anthony A. Free, and my _lovely _stand here is 『SMOOTH CRIMINAL』,"

Joy didn't drop her fighting stance but she did respond; "Why exactly are you telling me this?"

Anthony quirked an eyebrow," Well we have reached a standstill, I haven't figured out your new trick and I know I can escape you whenever I want…...That and it's finally nice to put a face to a name."

Joy tensed up, " I don't know what you mean…"

Anthony ran a hand through his hair before responding," Green Dolphin Street, You got off scott free and that left an open cell that needed to be filled."

Joy growled a little before responding," So this is all revenge is it, revenge for something I had no control over."

"No," He responded while leaning against a wall," This is for my shot at complete freedom."

Joy decided she had had enough and lashed out with the same power again while yelling," No way in hell am I letting you get away."

Anthony simply smirked as he replied," I'm afraid you can't stop that."

Joy's chains of air collided with the wall sending a spray of concrete everywhere as Anthony just phased through the wall. Joy let out a harsh breath before turning on her heel and running as fast as she could the other way, since she was damn near positive they were approaching the end of their time limit. She rounded a few corners before realizing that she was thoroughly lost and had no idea where she had broken into this place. She hesitated for a brief second before making her call and ducking into another room she assumed led outside, once in there she summoned 『ALICE IN CHAINS』and had it punch the window in one clear strike. A sudden alarm blaring made her wince but she ignored it and hopped through the window wincing as she landed. '_Son of a bitch really did a number on me," _She thought as she saw the severe bruising along her upper leg. She quickly got back to her standing position and ran...shuffled….hobbled towards where she knew the car was parked.

* * *

Jason slid the last piece of what he deemed important paper into his bag before opening the door and hurrying out. He was seething with hatred as he finished zipping the bag since he was able to get a vague idea of what Mortis was trying to do. He was able to gather that they were attempting to 'synthesize' a stand by extracting the 'soul' of stand users, and creating something called a 'complete union of soul wavelength'. Basically, from what he was able to tell, they were torturing the stand users and...tying their pain and suffering to some sort of stone, the papers called it an arrow stone or something. It was something quite disturbing, the concept of the only thing of these victims that survived was their suffering and pain and that was taken and used for the purpose of causing other people to suffer. It was really just a po- Jason spun and summoned 『HERE COMES REVENGE』already throwing a punch. He saw a knife and soon felt a knife enter and cut his cheek, but he was also able to see the punch connect with what looked like a human shadow. As they both skidded away from each other he heard a voice chuckle and say," That's how that works then,"

Jason ignored the blood coming down his face and looked at his opponent; a lean man with what seemed to be living shadows, probably his stand, and a matching cut along his cheek. Jason adopted a boxing stance and asked," Now, who the hell are you?"

The man gave him a wicked smile before responding," I'm Rod Priest and my stand is 『THE RIPPER』."

Jason looked on through squinted eyes as the shadows crept up along his opponents face and seemed to fill the wound on his cheek stopping the blood. "I don't remember asking, but thanks for telling me."

The two squared off again with 『HERE COMES REVENGE』ready to counter anything that Rod Priest may try to throw at him. The two opponents circled each other like a pair of awkward dance partners, before Rod Priest flew forward with shadow talons outstretched. 『HERE COMES REVENGE』intercepted him with a brutal uppercut drilling him in the jaw. He heard a satisfying as Rod stumbled to the side with more shadows crawling up his jaw piecing his teeth and jaw back together. He immediately charged back prompting Jason to swing with 『HERE COMES REVENGE』but this time an arm covered in shadow came up to block the punch. However Jason wasn't a one trick pony and he decided to drive his leg up into Rod's crotch eliciting a scream of intense pain. Rod fell to the ground spitting in pain, hopefully due to the boots Jason was wearing. Rod chuckled through the pain before he spoke, "God damn this-this is so much damn fun."

Jason took a step back as Rod pushed himself off the ground," Jesus you're fucked up."

Rod cackled some more," Don't doubt it for a minute, but I have to ask how long you can keep it up."

Jason glanced down at his arm and noticed the series of cuts lining the inside of his arm, conveniently where Priest had blocked 『HERE COMES REVENGE』. It really seemed that Rod was trying to turn this into a war of attrition. Jason wasn't going to make it that easy though and he and his stand exploded forward trying to catch Rod.

Punches and kicks flew as the two went back and forth over the room, computer monitors being destroyed and several being used as long range projectiles. Jason winced slightly as he felt a new cut appear along his leg after he ate a kick from Rod in exchange for him landing an equally solid hit to his face. It really seemed like all that 『THE RIPPER』is doing was holding him together to continue this fight. Jason simply raised his guard again before a small red light caught his eye in one of the destroyed computer terminals. It took only a brief second for him to realize what it was; That being a bomb. Rod began to chuckle when he followed Jason's gaze," I see you finally noticed."

Jason tightened his stance as Rod continued," In only two more minutes this place will go up in one hell of a fireball erasing it all off the map, though I do wonder if your little friends know of that fact."

Jason tried not to let the panic show on his face, but he now had an internal timer running in his head of when he needed to beat this guy. He snapped back to reality just in time to see Rod charging forward looking to gut him, instead Jason just suffered three major cuts along his chest from the shadow claws. He spun around and slammed an elbow into Rod's jaw enhancing it with his stands strength.

1:50 seconds till detonation, ten seconds gone just like that.

『HERE COMES REVENGE』extended forward and kept the combination going with a brutal series of punches culminating with a powerful left straight. The only issue being that the shadows kept crawling over his skin and pulling his body back together. He glanced at the main bomb moving farther and farther away in the fight.

1:42 seconds till detonation, eight more seconds lost.

That moment of distraction cost him dearly as there was a sudden pain driven into his side, a quick glance down revealed an even longer black claw, a middle finger ironically, impaled there. He felt his stand's power activate but he imagined that his damn stand would just hold him together a bit longer. This time Jason didn't even use his stand he just opened his mouth and bit down on Rod's ear before ripping back and taking the ear with him. He heard Rod scream in pain but he followed up the bite with a gouge using his stands hand to go into his leg. Rod punched Jason in the ribs hard sending him away leaving a gouged hole in his side, but Rod down an ear and a hole in his leg that was difficult to patch.

1:30 seconds until detonation, ten seconds blown away.

They both eyed each other, both trying to ignore the endless amount of pain pumping through their systems. Jason glanced towards the bomb before redirecting his view to see Rod spit some blood out of his mouth and shakily adjust his stance to get ready to go again. They both set upon each other again both trying to find some way through their opponent. Punches a kicks flew hitting all spots of the body, the head was pounded, ribs cracked, and knuckles shattered and crushed as they collided again and again.

1:15 seconds until detonation, fifteen seconds spent destroying their bodies for no gain.

Jason kept the timer in his head but he was very quickly realizing that this wasn't just a timer to save the life of his friends, but also one for his self destruction. He was completely aware that his body wasn't going to make it through this unscathed, but now now he may have to make a call. He dodged a sudden kick and the follow up, before letting the the sudden impalement attempt land home.

60 seconds until detonation, fifteen more spent making a decision.

This was the only choice he could make that made any sense, he thought about as he hit the ground. He could easily keep standing but he let his legs go out and he hit the ground feigning unconsciousness, and Rod didn't even gloat he simply coughed and and trudged away towards some sort of exit. A door slammed and Jason attempted to get to his legs only to feel them give out with any attempt to put weight on them. He gave up and started a bloody crawl across the floor towards the bomb, his body feeling nothing but pain as he forced his muscles to keep churning.

40 seconds until detonation, twenty spent on someone else's future

He reached the bomb and looked at it through blurry eyes, trying to decipher the mess of wires or maybe it was one singular wire, he really couldn't tell at this point. He tightened his resolve as he began to sort through what turned out to be three wires , when he thought about all the people that could be saved as long as his friends escaped. He tightened his hand around one of the wires and thought back to Joy, the little sister who he basically inherited, the one who was thrown into this psychotic world. He couldn't let her lose her life with all she had ahead, she was only eighteen after all. He wasn't that old but he knew that with how badly his stand wrecked his body he wasn't going to live long, but he was fine with throwing it all on the line in order to save someone else. He smiled ruefully as he wrapped his hand fully around the wire, He didn't want to die but he didn't regret giving it up to save someone else's, hell he had been a paramedic for a reason. He gathered up his strength and pulled the cord and with a sudden shower of static and silence led him to believe the bomb had been defused. At the same time he pulled the cord Jason's body fully gave out his heart flat lining and his body finally calling it quits.

He had pulled the cord in the nick of time to because a second later Joy and Seth would have been blown away and killed by how many explosives were linked together.

* * *

**STAND STATS**\- 『THE RIPPER』

User: Rod Priest

Strength: D

Speed: B

Range: D

Durability: A

Precision: A

Potential: A

『THE RIPPER』is a suit based stand that manifest over the users skin like a tattoo. It allows for manifestation of claw, spike, and armor like appendages. It also acts as a berserker suit of armor that pierces his skin and keeps the body held together.

User History: Rod Priest is the elder brother of Priest with a larger criminal record, spanning seventeen years. He was arrested for murder, attempted murder, and conspiracy to commit murder, but broke himself out of the prison transport and gained the attention of Mortis through his intense violence and incredibly masochistic tendencies that lead to his already off kilter personality.


	9. Chapter 9

Joy just sat there leaning against the wall as the coroner's van pulled away. She took a drag of the cigarette and exhaled heavily as she looked at the warehouse. They had stormed back in after the self set time limit ran out, but all they found were bodies of various mercenaries, unfortunate victims, and on the body Jason bloodied and beaten over a defuse bomb. She chuckled bitterly as she snubbed the cigarette against the wall and continued to silently curse herself.

She cursed her own weakness since she wasn't able to even save one of the people who saved her. It was just insulting to know that only a floor below her and after her opponent left her to her own devices the man she thought of as a big brother and helped save her died doing just that. It made her feel so weak, especially since she couldn't even beat her opponent in the end, even with her new trick. She crossed her arms and dug her fingers into her arms as the self hatred wrapped around her, she couldn't save anybody. Maybe it was just the trauma from when she was younger, but she couldn't help but think back to every instance where she couldn't save anybody. Her parents died trying to defend her, Marshall lost friends helping her, and Jason lost his life trying to save her.

She turned and walked a few steps down an alley letting the hate fester for a bit. He died for her and she couldn't even fucking cry for him. It wasn't that she wasn't sad or heartbroken, but she just couldn't cry. All her sadness just seemed to fuel her complete and utter self hatred. She unfurled her arms and through a haymaker at the nearest wall, feeling a rather painful sensation travel up her arm. She ignored her now bleeding knuckles and ran her hands through her hair. "What the hell is wrong with me?"

She wanted to cry, she knew she should, but she just couldn't. In part she knew it was a degree of familiarity with death, well more so murder but the principle was still the same. She figured Marshall was feeling the same, but she wasn't a military veteran turned special agent investigating an organized crime group. She was a month away from being eighteen and having an internal debate with herself over sadness, God what was wrong with her.

What made it worse was the fact that it did hurt to lose Jason, and just knowing that he gave it up for their sake reminded her of the promise he had made when they first picked her up. She chuckled as she started walking out of the alley looking to rejoin the group and figure out what's going on. She wouldn't let his sacrifice go to waste, she was going to make him the hero he swore he would be. She but her uninjured hand in her pocket and felt the stupid bracelet he had always worn from when he been an EMT. He had always said that some girl gave it to him after he had to give CPR to the mother and managed to bring her back.

She exited the alley and strolled forward noticing Marshall spinning the chamber on his pistol while leaning against a car. He didn't glance up as he spoke," How are you holding up?"

She joined him against the car before responding," Okay, I guess"

Marshall put the gun in its holster before running his hands through his hair," It's just infuriating, having fought so hard with him for so long to not be there with him when he…"

Joy looked over at Marshall," You know that he wouldn't blame you right, he knew that this was possible."

"Just cause he knew doesn't mean it's fair," Marshall quickly retorted," I shouldn't have brought him or you, or anybody else in on the investigation. I saw somebody with a stand who had encountered a part of Mortis organization and thought that he would be able to help."

"You know he would have gotten involved anyway," Joy spit back," His goal was always to be a hero to people and he was always willing to throw his body away for others."

"But Mortis-"

Joy cut him off," I know Mortis and you think for a minute that psychopath would let him go after finding out about him, either way he would have ended up here."

Marshall went quiet for a minute before finally speaking again," Thanks."

Joy nodded before attempting to push away from the car but Marshall spoke up first," It's not your fault either."

Joy looked back with a somewhat confused expression until Marshall continued," I know you, and how you are beating yourself up over not being able to do anything."

"Well I-"

"We didn't account for a bomb, hence the plan being for all of you to leave or for John and I to come rushing in. You followed the plan, you didn't make a mistake."

Joy looked at him incredulously," But I could have gone down there and saved him, my fight bailed and I had time."

"And you followed my plan, it all come back to the plan and the fear of losing any of the data we had."

Joy stopped and flexed the hand with the bloody knuckles before nodding and walking off towards the other two members of the party. It was a fairly quiet walk as the policemen ignored her since she was with the 'FBI' group, aside from the occasional leering glances. She would have gotten into a fight if any of the men said anything to her, but they thankfully didn't. She plopped down on the curb next to John, who upon glancing at her simply held out the box of cigarettes. She took one and borrowed the lighter as John asked," How are you doing?"

Joy took a drag and thought back to ," It's complicated, but I'm holding up….same as Marshall."

John nodded and the duo fell into a silence while Joy started her cigarette and John finished his. The silence was broken by Seth shuffling over with one hand wrapped tightly and secured with a brace. He made it over and fell down next to the duo prompting Joy to ask," What's the damage?"

Seth looked mildly annoyed before chuckling," Three ribs, a broken hand, two teeth just missing, another three loose, and a completely shattered nose."

"Nice," Joy commented dryly," I made it out with a broken finger and some bruised ribs."

"Somehow we are still worse off then the big lug here," Seth commented gesturing to John who glared back unamused."

Joy outright laughed at the stupid joke getting a chuckle out of Seth and an annoyed head shake out of John. The group settled into another silence as Seth drank from a bottle of water he had received from the ambulance. She sighed and took another drag of the cigarette as she thought about where they were in scope of the entire debacle. They had another address, the Kentucky one, but now they were even farther behind the curve since Mortis had gone ahead. They also couldn't send anybody outside of their group to the New York Address because they didn't know how deep the corruption ran in regards to Mortis. In essence they were God knows how far behind a convoy of trained and deadly people, with only four stand users. Her moping was interrupted by the all too familiar voice of Marshall from behind," You all are still here?"

Seth and John both had incredulous looks on their faces, but John was the first to speak," Yeah we are. We both signed up for the long haul and I still don't know who or what the hell I am, so my options are fairly limited."

Seth just nodded and Marshall smirked before continuing," Well you all can grab your things from the car, the taxi will be here in fifteen minutes to take us to the airport."

"Why the hell are we going to an airport?," Joy asked with the confusion evident on her face.

Marshall looked at her dryly before she suddenly slapped her forehead and said out loud," Never mind…"

She ignored the laughter coming from John and Seth and headed towards the car in order to get her backpack. She smiled a little bit as she pulled the bracelet from her pocket and slipped it on, though it was a little big the self hatred that wrapped her up let go a little. She felt a new idea enter her mind and it was one that quickly became her main one; Be a hero. That was the goal that had guided Jason's life and now...she was going to make it up to him by accomplishing it.

* * *

About two hours and three arguments with the staff at the small airport about whether or not John could have his cigarettes on the plane, Seth finally found himself in a semi comfortable plane seat. It was a small six person passenger plane for a five hour trip, though he really wasn't complaining. It was partially the painkillers he took before take off dulling his general senses, but the other was a love for planes he had since he was a kid. He hadn't gone into aviation because his parents beat it into him to go into something cushy in order to support him, but after his new found experiences and talks with...her he found himself reevaluating.

He snapped out of his emotional thinking when he felt an elbow meet his arm, albeit the uninjured one, and dig into it. He looked away from the window and saw Joy readjusting in her sleep again, something she had been doing for the past half hour they had been in the air, but he hadn't been counting. He looked down the row and saw John and Marshal looking through the notes and data everybody had gathered. He had already looked it over and put together what the project was; Synthetic stands. I mean it sounds completely insane but he could now produce fifty beetles that could incite rage in a person, so anything seemed to be possible. It really was based on the idea that a soul could be preserved in some capacity, since based on what Marshall and Jason had told him the stand reflects a person's soul, or fighting spirit, depending on who answered.

"Hey Marshall so you know what makes a stand, or whatever humanoid?"

Marshall looked up from the paper that he was looking at before saying, " I don't have any idea what actually influences how the stand forms."

Seth rolled his eyes and went back to his pondering over what each stand really said about the user. 『RIDE THE LIGHTNING』made sense as John was extremely, extremely impulsive and even quicker to act, he also was an athletic freak for someone who was 44 and smoked like no tomorrow. His stand, 『BALLROOM BLITZ』, was also fairly simple; he was a manipulative ass who had little to no physical power. After that it felt like he was delving into his old psychology class from college trying to psychoanalyze everybody based on some abstract representation of who they are. He snickered as he remembered his rather insane psychology teacher and how those were some of his favorite classes in his rather boring class list.

Another elbow to his arm got him refocused on his self appointed task, as well as give him the next victim. Joy's 『ALICE IN CHAINS』was interesting as she seemed to be rather free spirited but the constant thing with chains made it seem that she was tied down by something. He shook his head and moved on to Marshall's 『FOUGHT THE LAW』which was easily the simplest one...he was a lawman. Another elbow dug into his arm and made him move to alleviate the pressure, but a clinking noise caught his attention. He looked down at the stiff brace that covered his now broken hand and felt an odd emotion well up in his chest.

She had been the first person he had ever opened up to, and she was the first person he had really ever bothered to want to help….aside from the present company. Maybe it was just the severe circumstance they were stuck in but talking with her had been one of the few things that led him to holding on for as long as he did in that hell hole. Especially when they upped the experiments on both of them, that had been the worst period of time. Though a close second was the day she passed since apparently her stand had been eating her alive, basically it was a self destructive stand. Honestly that moment had been one of the things that fueled him to hang on to life, that and his complete and utter spite for the doctors that came in every day.

He shook his head and looked out the window again, trying to take his mind off what happened then and instead try to think about what was going to happen in the future.

* * *

Hetfield kept his foot pressed down on the pedal as the truck coasted along I-70, while casting glances at Mortis who sat in the cab looking over notes still. It was honestly impressive that he was so calm despite the scenario that the organization was in, but then again Hetfield wasn't getting paid to care about that. He glanced down at the speedometer and pressed down the pedal a little harder, 135 wasn't a bad speed but he really wanted to make it to Kentucky as quickly as possible. It wasn't anticipation of finally achieving the goal behind Living Colour, but more so the ability to get out of the bosses cross hairs.

It was incredibly unnerving even being next to the man, his demeanor was just so different from what he knew Mortis was capable of. The man who resembled a family doctor was so easily capable of murder, extortion, and illegal human experimentation-all for the sake of achieving some odd personal goal.

Hetfield turned his eyes back to the road and eyed the speedometer again before Mortis suddenly spoke up," Hetfield...I have to ask, why exactly did you join my organization."

Hetfield eyed the man curiously before cautiously responding, " Money and power...you offered a chance at both that I couldn't get anywhere else."

Mortis nodded before turning back to his notes and silently flipping through a few times before speaking up again," I was just wondering if it had anything to do with Living Colour and the Powerslave projects?"

Hetfield chuckled," I can't deny that I'm interested in how this turns out since it is certainly damn ambitious."

Mortis nodded his head with fervor," Assuming it works I'll be able to control the nature of a stand at its inception, and at that point I will have surpassed my old master."

Hetfield looked over at Mortis who had finally calmed down from his fervor, and chuckled a small amount. He would definitely hang around as long as Mortis and his projects showed promise and gave him an opportunity to move up in the criminal underbelly. Since he had gone from a simple thug to one of the enforcers for Mortis's organization. He also found it interesting that this man was so desperate to surpass his old master, or teacher, or whatever the old British guy had been. The way Mortis talked about him sometimes made him seem like some sort of god or something.

* * *

As the plane flew its course on the path to Kentucky, Rod Priest finished checking into the two star hotel and made his way into the room. He rolled his shoulders in an attempt to get the pain to lessen, it didn't work but the effort made him feel better. "God damn I forget how awful the aftermath of my fun time is."

He dropped his duffel bag on the ground before looking at the back of his hand where the 'shadow' had pooled around the back of his hand, a solid signal that it had been broken. It was shocking that he hadn't felt it but that tended to happen with 『THE RIPPER 』and it's ability. He took off the leather jacket that he was wearing as his thoughts shifted away from the fight and to what happened to his brother. He knew that the brat had lost, not shocking since he was a weak shit, but all Free had bothered to tell him was that he was alive. It wasn't really a degree of brotherly love that he bothered to care about his brother but more for the sake of not pissing of Mortis, since he had brought the brat into the organization.

Rod Priest walked into the bathroom and flicked the light on before looking into the mirror. Jason, or whatever his name, really packed a punch he judged when he saw the shadows crawling along his jaw and holding the bone together. That ability had really made it difficult to get any sort of leverage even with his stand's ability to make spikes and claws, it honestly may have pushed him towards his limit. He peeled his shirt off next and took the time to observe his plethora of scars and the way the shadows danced along his skin. It was a little weird but he found the scars sexy and honestly they were all fun memories of a rather brutal life.

As he flexed in the mirror he failed to notice a faint glow appear around the duffel bag where the blood stained clothes were. It expanded and eventually coalesced into a vaguely humanoid form before looking around and stumbling towards the bathroom. As it did that it's form seemed to break apart and reform over and over again, almost as if it's body couldn't handle it's existence. It continued it's shaky and uneven walk through the room lumbering towards the bathroom. It's shaky steps eventually carried it through the door and into the bathroom, where Rod Priest was examining his torso.

Rod finally looked up from his torso and saw the glowing figure reflected in the mirror. He spun around and had 『THE RIPPER』crawl across his arms forming the brutal claws and spikes he had pulled out in his fight with Jason. The form just kept walking forward with it's uneven gait and stumbling walk, even as Rod lunged forward with claws out it kept going. In fact Rod went through the form like it wasn't even there, like it was just a phantom. He spun around after the failed attack phased through and almost immediately after he looked a bit closer before recognition flashed in his eyes," What the hell…"

In front of him stood a golden phantom of Jason's stand, breaking and falling apart every few seconds but still standing. "I don't know how the hell he pulled but I'll dice you to pieces."

He lunged forward with the claws only for his left arm to suddenly bend ninety degrees in the wrong direction. It was a sudden shock but nothing Rod hadn't handled before, especially with 『THE RIPPER』keeping the dam- his train of thought was interrupted when his eardrums both exploded. That sudden shock of pain through off his second attempted attack making him stop and looked confused at the phantom stand that hadn't even done anything. It suddenly took a step forward and a cut exploded across his face, while at the same time his calf suddenly opened dozens of small holes like buckshot had hit him. He winced as his stand rushed across his body to close the new wounds, but a sudden explosion of cuts all over his body began to stretch it a little thin. He still had his confidence at least until he felt his right hand suddenly shatter and his stand was a little slow to piece him back together. His nose suddenly twisted to the right as the bones broke, and only a second later his ribs exploded in pain. His eyes went wide as he realized the phantom was getting closer with it's shaky steps. His eyes widened with fear as the startling realization hit him, '_It was dealing damage in a higher quantity than his stand could handle.'_ He turned to run, the pain no longer being fun now that he wasn't recovering. But his right leg suddenly exploded into a fountain of blood sending him to the ground as his stand tried to patch him back together. More pain exploded along his body as new wounds opened up, bones turned to powder and he felt his appendix rupture and explode in his body. The phantom stumbled closer and the wounds exploded faster and faster across Rod's body, until it eventually came close enough to touch the back of Rod's head, and the moment it did all the wounds that were ever dealt to Jason exploded across the body of Rod sending him almost immediately into shock, if not killing him.

After doing that it stood straight up and its form began to dissolve more and more , fading into ethereal nothingness as a puddle of blood spread across the floor.

* * *

『HERE COMES REVENGE』

\- Eye for an eye, Tooth for a tooth, A life for a life,-

The hidden ultimate ability of Jason's stand and a culmination of his willingness to throw away his body for the sake of others. The phantom of his stand cannot be physically interacted with and in turn can't interact with anything but the one who killed it's user. In close proximity it inflicts all damage its user had ever taken, including damage prior to the stands appearance, onto the killer. Once physical contact is made all the damage is inflicted in one quick moment, but prior to contact the damage appears in small bursts.

-Stands that heal are able to negate the damage caused and is also possible to run away from the stand as it does only have a certain time limit of its life


	10. Chapter 10

Leen meandered around the designated 'break room' of the warehouse...foundry...research lab, focusing on nothing specific. Mortis had rolled in with Hetfield early in the morning and insisted on starting Living Colour as early as possible. Which also meant that he had nothing to do until Mortis was done, he wasn't upset about having no work but he did wish that someone of his caliber had something to do. "Hey big man, can you stop the pacing?"

Leen looked over at Hetfield who had taken up residence at one of two coffee tables that the room had. "Why exactly should I listen?"

"Because it's annoyingly loud," Leen peered over his shoulder with a scowl at the approaching voice,"I mean I can literally hear your footsteps down the hall."

Hetfield chuckled and immediately took a stab with his tongue, "What brings the amazing Mr. Free down to our humble abode."

Free chuckled as he walked over to the simple coffee pot sitting on the counter," Just needed a drink, got barely any sleep last night since I had to help with some set up."

Leen ground his teeth as Hetfield chuckled before speaking up," So how goes the operation or whatever it's technical name is?"

Free shrugged as he took a swig of the coffee," Not a clue, I've been more focused on figuring out where the hell Rod is."

Leen glared at him," Don't tell me you lost him."

" I mean I haven't seen or heard from him since we abandoned the warehouse," Free responded nonchalantly, sipping his coffee.

"Yeah, what the hell happened with that?" Hetfield asked from where he had propped his feet up on the table.

"You all probably ruined the plan, " Leen commented from behind his crossed arms.

Hetfield put his hands up in mock surrender," Hey don't look at me I was getting the truck ready."

Free shrugged again," I left Rod to his own, honestly that was the only way we worked together well."

" I could have gotten him to work with me," Leen commented.

"We all know that the only two people that Rod gets along with are Mortis and his ever so weak willed younger brother," Free mentioned before he took another sip of the coffee.

Leen glowered at the insinuation that he was incapable of something, and also the fact that Free was trusted to lead the others more than him ate at him. Hetfield interrupted his musings as he asked," So how exactly is the kid doing, you said he was pretty fucked up."

Leen remembered the rather broken state his on-and-off again partner had arrived in. It was a rather pathetic state, even more so since the injuries seemed to be caused by his own stand. It did provide a major issue as to what the opponents stand's full capabilities are, since they knew it was the other Alcatraz survivor. Just thinking about how he had somehow failed drove him crazy, even more so when he remembered how the other one managed to hurt him. He snapped out his memories when Hetfield called out his name," Hey Leen, what do you think happened to Zeiger...aside from getting arrested I mean?

"...Who?"

"Young guy, our main driver, good taste in music, called his stand 『DRAGULA』" Hetfield supplied as he tried to get Leen's opinion.

"I don't know who that is."

Now Free looked incredulous," He drove you off of Alcatraz, I mean come on I met him twice and I know him."

Leen looked down on Free, not that it was hard with the height difference," I don't find it worthwhile to remember the names of people below me."

Free went to continue talking but a sudden loud blaring filled the room, the blaring that only sounded when something triggered the hyper sensitive security system. It was a weekly occurrence at this point. Leen casually walked over to the wall mounted intercom and pressed the button that opened the channel, '_I wonder if another homeless guy set it off again'_

"Security Report," He barked over the channel.

The channel crackled into static before rushed words began to spill out," I have two people-three- three people making their-GAHK."

The line went dead and Leen stood there in udder bafflement at the situation. Hetfield spoke up putting the confusion he had into words, "How in the hell did they find this place, I mean it's registered under a freaking government medical development lab."

Free downed the coffee before rolling his sleeves up and cracking his neck," An address must have been left at...one of the bases that those guys have raided."

Leen felt a vein bulge on the back of his neck at Free's thinly veiled accusation. Leen hadn't made himself aware of what paperwork was left over in Alcatraz before setting about demolition, unlike how Free made sure all the paperwork about locations was destroyed as soon as possible. So now it must be his fault that this miserable little group managed to make it to one of their best hidden bases, it also meant that it was his fault that whatever his name was had gotten arrested. Leen tightened his hands into fists at the continued insults to his superiority and Hetfield pushed it even farther," So how are we going to play this?"

Free rolled his shoulders and tightened the bandage on his forearm," Best bet is to try and split them up in order to take them on. First, though, I'm going to get a call out to Mortis so he can hurry up the surgery."

Leen looked over at free with a glare before walking out of the room with heavy steps. He didn't need to be told the best plan, no matter what he would crush his opponents.

* * *

Joy took the stairs two at a time as she bolted down after the rest of the group, she had slowed down a bit to make some chains from the steel security doors. She rounded the bottom landing and finally caught up with the rest of the group who were now all paused around the directory for the building. They knew where Mortis probably was since the blueprints showed the medical lab on the bottom floor, and what Marshall and John had managed to understand from the medical and scientific jargon in the notes it was going to take a while. "What's up?" she asked.

"We have no idea," Seth answered as he breathed heavily.

John slapped the back of Seth's head as Marshall actually answered," We don't know which way is quicker."

John continued the thought," We don't know if storage or shaft is quicker."

Joy looked confused," What the hell is the shaft."

A sudden loud noise interrupted whatever Seth was trying to say next as the directory in front of them suddenly exploded into concrete dust momentarily blinding her. A sudden blow connected with her side sending her sprawling down the hallway with several more cracked ribs. She struggled back to her feet and saw Marshall standing next to her, his pistol drawn and aimed at the dust cloud. He went to a knee and helped her up before calling out, "Go ahead and get to Mortis!"

A series of footsteps disappeared as the dust cleared and Joy was able to see the heavily bandaged and rather deranged looking Priest standing there with 『TURBO LOVER』standing behind him mimicking the pose he was in. She blinked for a second before three shots rang out and there was a loud thud followed by a pained grunt as Marshall was no longer beside her and instead was down the hallway. She scrambled to her feet and summoned 『ALICE IN CHAINS』in just enough time to catch a sudden punch from the heavily bandaged Priest. The familiar clicking of a pistol hammer dropping down sounded but it was suddenly cut off by a heavy door dropping from the ceiling and cutting off Marshall and the rest of the hallway. Heavy breathing drew her attention as Priest raised his arms into an amateur boxing stance and a cruel look grew on his face," I owe you some payback bitch."

Joy felt a sudden spike in anger at the insult," You're going to eat those words."

* * *

Mortis tried to put the flashing red lights and incredibly aggravating alarm out of his mind as he continued the procedure, but one of the technicians helping monitor one of the machines caught his attention with a waving arm. Mortis sighed from underneath the surgical mask and carefully slammed the bloody drill back onto the cart with a rather loud bang, showing his annoyance. He stalked over to the now scared looking lab tech before speaking," Why exactly, in the middle of this rather complex procedure that has never been attempted, is my attention needed."

The lab tech looked sheepish, or terrified he couldn't really tell with the surgical gear, and Mortis was three seconds away from strangling this shit stain to death by the time he actually spoke up; "M-Mr. F-f-Free radioed in and said that th-ere wer-were intruders."

Mortis felt his eye twitch before letting out a deep exhale and stalking over to a wall mounted panel that had a single button in a glass case. He calmly opened the glass case before violently slammed his hand into the button causing metal doors to drop from the ceiling and seal the room. At this point in time he was incredibly thankful that this old lab still had the hazardous quarantine measures, albeit outdated and far too expensive ones but effective for the new purpose. '_Have to love old school government paranoia...though they did make a damn good drug.'_ Mortis smirked at the thought since he got a sort of pleasure from using their own drugs against them….though the fact there was so little of it left certainly made it difficult to do.

He turned around and saw some of the assistants looking nervously at the doors that now sealed them inside the shaft laboratory. He just sighed again and walked back to the currently open chest of his….patient. '_Now...I just need to finish the adherence of the appropriate material and then a dose of MK-908 and stage one should be done."_

Mortis reached past the drill as he prepared to move onto the next stage of the surgery, and grabbed a pair of forceps before returning to the cavity with his full focus on his work. He believed that he could do this before anyone got down to this level, because at the least his subordinates could delay the intruders with their lives, though his mind did wander to whether or not Priest was enjoying his….modifications.

* * *

Joy winced as she felt the kick connect with the overlaid stands arms and threw her off balance. This had been the tone of things since Marshall had been cut off, and the endless defense was starting to great on her. Though she couldn't dwell on the thought as she was forced to duck again as Priest's leg impacted the wall where she had just been. In this instant she slammed her hand on the ground and let 『ALICE AND CHAINS』power flow through and convert some of the tile floor into chains. From that awkward position she snapped it forward catching Priest in the face and staggering him. She got her feet under her and quickly unfurled the steel chains she had wrapped around her wrists with 『ALICE IN CHAINS』overlaying , "Lets go."

Priest snarled and exploded forward the tile cracking from where he used 『TURBO LOVER』but he didn't get far before he jumped to avoid a steel chain the skipped across the ground and was caught by the other hand sending the chain across and hitting him out of the air. He managed to catch himself before hitting the ground and had 『TURBO LOVER』explode forward to parry the next three attempted attacks. Joy channeled her stands ability into the ground and sent a flurry of tile chains flying forward, though she had so little control over the chains they may have well been blindly thrown darts. Priest released a guttural yell and had his stand release a flurry of punches demolishing the ceramic chains, and almost immediately after the flurry parried the twin steel chains. Joy grimaced at the failure before the loosened bandages caught her eye; "What the hell…."

From underneath the bandages she saw a mess of scars and stitches covering the skin. Priest noticed her gaze and pulled the rest of the bandage off his arm. "Got a bit of an upgrade from the boss, now...now nothing holds me back."

Joy gave him an odd look, as she took in the 'enhancements' for a little bit longer. She guessed they did something to enhance his joints but that wouldn't rea-

Her head flew backwards as something collided with it ripping the skin and getting blood to roll down her forehead in a thick trickle. She snapped back to see another chunk of tile flying towards her, but a sudden change in position saved her rather pretty face. She snapped one of her chains in an attempt to nail him but 『TURBO LOVER』intercepted, and with a precise strike to the links split the chain. She caught him with the other chain directly in the ribs and heard a satisfying crack as he keeled over and quickly backed away from her last steel chains range. She switched her stance up in order to try and get some sight that wasn't colored red. "Okay then that's some bullshit," she spit out as Priest was doing this mocking boxing stance.

She took advantage of his mocking attitude and reached out with『ALICE IN CHAINS』and began to reach out like she did in the fight against Free. She felt the familiar pull that accompanied her power as she formed the rather 'unsolid' air surrounding her into chains She felt it form into the chain as her stand's hand overlapped with hers. Priest chuckled before saying," Well now that I'm warmed up-"

He shot forward with the normal characteristics of『TURBO LOVER』, but as he launched forward Joy threw her new invisible chain forward like a whip. It collided with his torso ripping the shirt, lacerating the skin, and bringing his charge to a standstill. He collided with the ground before rolling to the side in order to avoid her follow up downswing with her last remaining steel chain. 『TURBO LOVER』appeared and grabbed it's user in order to haul him back to his feet to avoid her second downswing with the invisible air chain. The moment he established any sort of footing he was gone before pain suddenly blossomed from her blind spot as he connected with a fast punch to her kidney. " Now that I'm in this close there's nothing your chains can do," He shouted out with a wicked smirk decorating his face as she turned to face him.

The smirk left his face as 『ALICE IN CHAINS』fist connected solidly with his stands face, sending him falling to the ground with a dazed look in his eyes. The follow up punch was narrowly deflected by the arm of 『TURBO LOVER』before it kicked the ground attempting to back out of melee range. Joy didn't let up quickly, exploding forward in order to capitalize on the difference in physical strength between the stands, and when she was close enough her stand lunged forward trying to grab on to Priest.

However, in a sudden movement『TURBO LOVER』shifted and intercepted both of her stands arms,pinning them to its sides and preventing her stand from moving. "『TURBO LOVER』may be weaker than yours but it doesn't have to be that much stronger just to tie your stand up."

Joy was able to understand part of his logic….but he was wrong if he thought that he was stronger than her. She quickly slid her feet and slammed one of her hands into the gash on his stomach. Blood squirted out and his hastily made guard dropped allowing her to follow it up with a nose breaking fist to his face.

Priest realized the error in attempting to remove her stand from the equation as he attempted to backpedal; Joy herself was far, far, far better physically than he was. That idea was hammered home as he attempted to block another shot to the face only to be a quarter second too slow and instead eat it square to the jaw. Oddly though he wasn't feeling the normal amount of pain though he was having some issue breathing. Another glancing shot to his face and he desperately looked past Joy in an attempt to come up with anything.

Joy, with her one good eye wide open, pursued the advantage looking to put him down in the ground, but a sudden whooshing noise led to a sudden pain on her back. She felt her feet leave the ground before she landed roughly on her shoulder and slide across the torn tile floor.

Joy scrambled back to her feet and glanced across the ruined hallway at Priest who was in worse shape than she was, with what she was sure were freshly broken ribs, a few broken fingers, and a still bleeding gash across his stomach. Though at this point in the fight it could be more called a tear in his stomach at this point. The following tentative silence was full of harsh breaths and both of them trying to learn what parts of their body were going to be able to survive another clash. Joy was also trying to figure out what in the hell his 'enhancements' included; she figured there was additional muscular support, and pain numbing. '_Though,'_ she thought as she rolled her shoulders, 『ALICE IN CHAINS』mimicked the motion , ' _but there's no way that that stomach wound isn't giving him an issue, it's crazy but it's got to be pain numbing...It's insane but he did say Mortis gave it to him.'_

The silence came to an explosive end as 『TURBO LOVER』 punched the ground sending up a spray of ceramic tile up into the air, before sending them flying towards her as sharpened projectiles . She was ready for it this time and quickly created several chains out of the exposed concrete underneath what used to be a tile floor to block the worst of it. She suffered a few cuts along her arms and legs, but nothing like the still bleeding cut above her eye. She quickly responded by lashing out with one of the concrete chains, but that was quickly countered, but the fragments of shattered concrete still impacted Priest. He decided to barrel through and got several deep cuts all along his body as he rushed her trying to take advantage of her blind spot again.

Joy quickly maneuvered 『ALICE IN CHAINS』 to cover her blind spot, making Priest back off quickly in order to avoid another close encounter like the previous one. He settled for a handful of debris swiped off the ground and fired at close range like improvised buckshot, Joy couldn't avoid it entirely and the mock shotgun blast nailed her right hand. She flinched at the flashing pain of the debris tearing through her hand, and Priest took advantage of her flinch in order to sweep her legs and send her to the ground.

Joy hit the ground hard and quickly felt a soccer kick connect soldily with her side, sending pain flying through her body. With her one good eye she saw Priest's leg overlaid with his stands raised up before crashing down and managed to get 『ALICE IN CHAINS』to block it and the two follow up attempts at a stomp before she managed to shove the leg off. Priest stumbled back before getting his feet stable as Joy rolled over and struggled to be on her hands and knees. Priest smirked at the blood that came out of Joy's mouth before speaking," Well, well, the mighty hero falls."

Joy spit up some more blood," Fuck off."

"You know, it's really satisfying to finally be getting the chance to take you out," Priest started monologuing," I can no end of shit jobs from Mortis and Free since I first fucked up killing you...what two years ago now."

"I think you should stop talking and get on with it," Joy spit out with an infuriating smirk sprinkled with blood.

Priest felt what little self control he had leave the building as he saw that smirk. It was some sort of deeply held hatred for the person that he thought had ruined his rise through the ranks of Mortis organization. A twisted smile graced his face as he activated 『TURBO LOVER』and shot forward-

Only for a sickening pop and tearing noise to fill the suddenly quiet room, before the loud thud of Priest's body hitting the ruined tile floor. He went wide eyed as Joy began to laugh and pushed herself to her feet before she spoke," Well, well, the _mighty _villain falls."

Joy gazed down at his right leg, or more specifically his foot where the concrete chain she had formed sat coiled around it like an anchor. When she had gone to the ground she had realized that his foot was in range and on top of concrete. This plan was all she could come up with since she realized that he wasn't responding to most of the damage she was dealing. She had gone after his torso with body shots, but all it got was a slight reaction when punching that gash on his stomach. So she knew that she had to damage in an extreme way since nothing less would incapacitate him. She wasn't even sure that Priest realized how much damage he had taken in total, because now she could see a myriad of deep bruises and swelling across his arms and torso.

She finally got the pain to leave her legs and began to walk over as Priest tried to push himself up. She almost felt bad for how badly mangled it was, with a completely shattered ankle sitting at a right angle from the rest of the leg, a torn...everything in the leg, and a destroyed knee that she could see was spilling some blood. She had finally made it over to Priest and glanced at the growing puddle, before moving over to the actual body. Priest looked up from the ground and with a pained grimace growled out," You stupid bitch, I'm going to come back an-"

Joy cut his threat short and slammed her foot down on his face breaking his nose and ramming his head into the jagged concrete floor. She picked her foot up off his head and went to turn around before hearing a whooshing noise, She quickly used 『ALICE IN CHAINS』ability and caused the concrete chains she had already made to block the attempted punch at her back. She wasn't successful in stopping it, but she managed to deflect it from her spine to her shoulder. She stumbled forward in pain before turning around with violence in her eyes, "So that's how it's going to be."

Priest looked up and went to open his mouth but a sudden downward punch from 『ALICE IN CHAINS』cut it off, and his next attempts to speak were also cut off by a flurry of punches as Joy stood off to the side. She flexed, or rather tried to move, the hand that had been riddled by Priests Improvised buckshot. She cut her stands onslaught when she was sure Priest was out before tearing a piece of her ruined t-shirt and wrapping her hand up. She looked over at the sealed metal door before commenting," So what the hell do I do now?"

* * *

Marshall turned away from the metal door that had suddenly cut him off from Joy and Priest, after a quick examination. All it really determined was that there was no way in hell he was shooting through the door, and it wasn't like he had some stand that could mess with tech in some way. All he could do was count on Joy and her mile long mean streak to take down Priest...though there was something odd about Priest. Normally when He would fight with Priest he would be forced to dodge high speed projectiles. It was mostly the fact that Priest's body couldn't handle the strain of 『TURBO LOVER』and he was always overly cautious of preserving his body, going as far to purposely weakening his stands ability. The fact he so quickly stepped into melee coupled with how much harder the hit felt compared to earlier fights made Marshall think that something is amiss. Especially since he heard about what Seth had gotten Priest to do to himself. Mortis wouldn't be one to miss what happened to his pawn, and he wouldn't be happy about it. It made him believe that Mortis had done something to either give Priest an edge, or a belief that he was fine when he went all out.

A sudden noise to Marshall's left had him pulling his pistol out and aiming with narrowed eyes. He figured that he would get into a fight, but the issue was that the plan was to fight as a group and this was not that scenario. He heard the noise grow louder before it suddenly transferred into a rhythmic series of noises resembling footsteps. Marshall exhaled and quickly reached down and patted down his left hip making sure his secondary side arm was there as the footsteps grew closer and closer.

'_Here we go….'_

* * *

**STAND STATS**\- 『MR. EGO』

User: Harrison West Leen (goes by Leen)

Strength: A

Speed: B

Range: D

Durability: A* (B)

Precision: A* (D)

Potential: C

『MR. EGO』is a large Humanoid stand whose skin is primarily gold with thick silver bands covering it's knuckles, chest, and some of its arms. The stand possesses no mouth or nose but with its eyes still manages to look down on people. It's ability pertains very closely to its name as it's durability and precision are affected by Leens belief in his stands abilities. Meaning that as Leen believes his stand is the greatest to ever exist it's durability and precision rise to match. It's strength and speed are exempt from that ability as they are more of a reflection of Leens physical ability. The other part of 『MR. EGO』's ability is to degrade the confidence and self esteem of his opponents through dealing physical damage. ( 『HERE COMES REVENGE』was able to negate this by sharing the damage dealt but since Leen had such a belief in himself it canceled out the ability overall.)

User History: Leen was a mid level enforcer for a New York gang where he dreamed of grandeur and power far beyond his position. It changed when Mortis came to his gang looking for assistance with the current projects and offered money, the gang agreed and everybody willingly subjected themselves to the golden gun he possessed. Of his entire gang he was the only one to survive and manifest a stand. He originally planned to kill Mortis with it and crawl his way up the ranks of organized crime, but Mortis managed to convince him that more money and prestige could be found by helping him accomplish Living Colour and Powerslave.


	11. Chapter 11

Marshall kept his eyes down the hallway as another series of thuds sounded off from either the third or fourth room on the left. Though he had noticed a change in the rhythm of the thuds, a slight shift in the timing, only about half a second, but it made him hesitant to move forward. He also didn't want to risk being forced to reload if any of the bullets missed in case his opponent had speed. The thud sounded again and he quickly shifted his vision to the two doors on the left, though now he was positive it was the fourth. His instincts suddenly screamed at him and with surprising agility he spun and threw himself into the left wall with a solid thud.

He quickly identified the enemy stand; it was tall with a torso and upper arms composed of shifting 'shadows', a face mask where eyes should be with two M shaped slits, a torso that ever so slightly resembled football shoulder pads, and then a set of forearms that ended with a set of palms with a hole in the middle. He raised his pistol in response but the sudden and familiar sound of door opening drew his attention. He quickly glanced out of the corner of his and saw an arm leaning out of the door to the fourth room. He quickly turned his attention back to see a palm coming towards him and he dove away heading towards the now open door.

He quickly got his feet under him and continued his dash towards the door. The man now was almost completely out of the room and Marshall was able to make out the startled expression on his face. The man stepped all the way out, quickly produced a pistol from behind his back, and swung it around to be aiming at Marshall. Marshall retorted by bringing his hand up and quickly slamming the trigger and sending a hail of bullets down the hallway towards the man, and at the same time the man returned fire. With years of experience around firearms, and a few dozen lessons from his failure of a father, he was able to at least tell the trajectory of the bullet. He shifted his head, barely an inch overall, but it was enough to make one of the bullets that would have struck his ear to only graze it. On the other hand the man wasn't so lucky as all six of the bullets struck the man in the torso, sending him off his feet and to the ground with a resounding thud.

Marshall spun around on his heel to check how close the stand was, as six more bullets were crammed into the chamber. A sudden pressure around his ankle made him switch his attention back towards the man he had just shot. At this range he was able to see that underneath the dark t-shirt and leather jacket he had some sort of protection, probably a leather jacket. Though with how tight his grouping was it still would have left a bad bruise and most likely broken some ribs. The downed man suddenly swung the pistol still in his left hand up, spurring Marshall to swing his pistol aim to the man's head right as he spoke,"Made you look."

A sudden noise, something akin to cloth rubbing, sounded right behind him. Marshall tried to turn his body but the stands hand grappled around his throat and his free arm preventing him from turning all the way around. He was vaguely aware of the man moving out from under him while talking;" Game over lawman."

Marshall blinked once before realizing that something was happening with his vision; It was steadily growing darker. It stood out to him, even in this situation, because he wasn't close to passing out yet. His vision started to grow darker and darker as the man began to move towards him. Marshall twisted the arm holding the pistol to where it was positioned directly over the grappled arm, and from there he quickly pulled the trigger four times nailing the forearm of the stand for times. The pressure suddenly disappeared from both his arm and his throat as he heard the man swear loudly. Marshall took advantage of the lack of pressure as he turned away from the stand, lowered his shoulder, and rammed into his opponent. He heard the sound of both a human body and a gun falling to the tile floor. He continued past the man as his vision remained completely black, though he felt his foot connect with what he assumed was the man's head. He made it about eight steps before his ears picked up the sound of rustling cloth, and mumbled growling. Marshall turned his upper body backwards a little before extending his shooting arm and firing the remaining two bullets charged with『FOUGHT THE LAW』 . '_Guilty of Assaulting a government officer.'_ The two bullets flew from the chamber and Marshall knew that the bullets were homing in on the opponent. He almost smirked when he heard a frustrated growl sound from behind him, as he heard the bullets deflect og what he assumed was the stand. He took advantage of the man's shift in focus to dip into what he figured was the sixth door, based on the length of his strides and the distance between doors

As he darted through the door he groped with his free hand and managed to find the lightswitch...and then immediately bashed it with the but of his pistol after making sure the switch was in the down position. He felt his way along the wall, quickly putting together a plan as he finally reached the corner of the room. '_His stand likely works on proximity or time limit or he would have just attacked me with it, so if he wants to finish me off he has to come to me.."_

* * *

Hetfield grimaced as 『FADE TO BLACK』moved out from in front of him, revealing a now empty hallway. He tried to bend down and grab the pistol but stopped when he saw his mangled left forearm, the result of Marshall unloading when he escaped the grab. He reached down with his other hand and was forced to pause once again, since he noticed that two of his fingers were mangled. He quickly thought back to when Marshall had fired, he knew one bullet had clipped 『FADE TO BLACK』's mask, but he hadn't noticed any damage. The only real downside to covering up his sense of pain was when stuff like this happened. He idly wondered if this was a decent idea before suddenly twisting the two mangled fingers into a semblance of normalcy.

He finally picked the gun up and adjusted his grip before returning to look down the hallway. "Lets see," Hetfield said out loud, an old nervous tick," I took his sight, and if he's as smart as his file says he probably knows it's a range based effect."

He rolled his shoulders and began to walk slowly down the hallway. '『FADE TO BLACK』_has a range of thirty feet and it's effect persists for at least five feet after that,'_ he thought as he began to creep forward down the hallway. His working plan was to move slowly down the hallway trying to make sure Marshall stayed in range….though at the same time he had to be in range of Marshall's stand. That issue was one he was going to have to deal with though since his stand was sorely lacking in any sort of physical strength, so there was no way that it would be able to pummel him to death without risking a repeat of the initial grapple he did. "What the hell…."

He paused outside of the third door on the left before he directed 『FADE TO BLACK』to enter first. '_If _『FADE TO BLACK』_enters first and nothing sounds off I can assume that it's empty because he has to basing his aiming on instinct.' _He smirked as he quickly moved from the current room into the next his stand moving first. '_This, this plan is gonna work.'_

* * *

Marshall steadied his breathing as he listened to the sounds both in and out of the room, specifically the footsteps. He had quickly noticed the lack of care in how his opponent carried himself and that let him know that he wasn't leaving the hallway. He heard the footsteps pause in the hallway again and he let his thoughts wander, mainly to how he had no idea who he was fighting. It was slightly worrying that he had no file on this person, not so much for the fight itself since he had no file detailing Owen Springs involvement with the organization. He did, however, have a file about the existence of Owen, in this case he had absolutely no idea who this was. It made him worry that there may be other people within the organization that they have no idea even exist. He snapped out of his musings when the footsteps resumed and stopped again only door away this time.

He shifted slightly as he heard the footsteps resume their steps and arrive and the door. The door slid open, a slight rubbing sound as it did, and he was able to pick out the slight sound of cloth rubbing as well. He picked the sound out as the one made by the stand and held his trigger as the sound moved farther into the room. '_1-2-Guilty of Assaulting a Government Officer.'_

He pulled the trigger six times, each bullet flying forward and homing in towards the guilty party. As the last bullet left the chamber he leaned forward and dashed forward following the all towards the door. He was able to make out at least one bullet colliding with the door frame, another sounded like it clipped the frame but it seemed to keep going. He reached the door as the sound of bullets colliding with a person, he also caught the sound of metal scattering across the ground again. He grabbed the door frame as he made it out the room and used it to swing himself back towards where he had started. He ran forward about eight steps before spinning around and quickly slotting a speed re loader into the now empty chamber of his model 27.

The sound of cloth moving across the ground returned, but quickly covering it up was the sound of a person coughing and moving. Marshall assumed it was his opponent getting off the ground, he adjusted his pistol and went to fire but the sound of cloth rushing forward made him backpedal in order to try and make some distance. He clicked his tongue in annoyance, he assumed his opponent had gotten them self into cover of some sort, which meant that it would be difficult to get any shot to hit him. He had to switch his focus again as the cloth rustling returned to his left, he quickly shuffled to the right and was actually able to feel the breeze left by the miss. He backed a few more steps up and focused in on the sound as the stand kept maneuvering towards him rather quickly, but the noise gave him enough of an indication of where he needed to avoid. Though he was going to have to start taking shots at the stand in order to figure out where the solid parts are. He pulled the hammer on his pistol back before suddenly having to backpedal to avoid another attempted grab and the vicious follow up. Marshall got his feet planted and quickly fired a single shot, the sudden ping of metal colliding with metal told him that the first shot had either missed or hit the incorporeal shadow like body. He clicked his tongue and quickly shuffled to the side to avoid what he assumed was another swipe by the enemy stand.

He prepared to fire again hoping to figure out the precise angle that would let him hit the solid parts of the stand. But a sudden series of gunshots, three to be exact, sounded from off to his left and drowned every other noise. He momentarily panicked at the gunshots and his inability to read the trajectory. A sudden pain in the center of his chest told him that his worries were very misplaced.

* * *

Hetfield looked down at his now hole ridden shirt incredibly thankful for his ballistic vest. '_Though,' _he thought as he shifted his view to his right arm which now was completely unusable ," _This is going to be problematic.'_ He guessed the bullet splintered the bone which basically meant that he couldn't aim the pistol anymore. He peeked around the corner and observed Marshall quickly getting away from 『FADE TO BLACK』, much to his annoyance. He glanced back down to his ruined forearms and the stream of blood that was coming out of it. It wasn't a major artery but the amount of blood that he was losing put a definite time limit on this fight. He glanced back towards Marshall as he fired a shot that phased through the torso of his stand. '_He doesn't know it,' _he thought as he tried to plan,' _But this fight has to end quickly.'_

He glanced back his the gun in his hand as a quick plan in his head. He knew that Marshall had to be using sound because taste was useless and touch wouldn't do much here. So with that noted Hetfield pointed the pistol at the ground, looked towards Marshall, and pulled the trigger emptying the magazine into the floor.

The effect was instantaneous as Marshall spared a quick glance in his direction as the sound of the bullets covered up the faint sound that 『FADE TO BLACK』made while moving. He saw the hand connect with the center of Marshall's chest, sending him into the wall with a quick grunt of pain. Hetfield smirked and stalked out of the room confident that his stand ability had taken effect plunging Marshall into complete darkness.

Marshall let out a grunt as he felt himself collide with the wall, a dull ache coming from where the stand hit him. Any worry of possible damage he took from the punch quickly left his mind as his hearing suddenly became duller and duller. Soon he found himself only able to feel the wall behind him, the general coarseness of his clothes, and the solid floor under his feet. It was a surreal feeling for him, not even being able to hear anything but the blood rushing by his ears. If he put any value in meditation this would have been a very unique experience, but in this scenario….this was almost a death sentence. '_Key word being almost,'_ he commented to himself as he thought back to the only lesson his father had taught him.

_~~1970-Fitzsimons Army Hospital~~_

_A ten year old Marshall stared at the, strangely dressed, teen across from him. His brother was never around, so his off putting choice of fashion never really got normal. The other reason he only stared was the fact his mom was making him spend time with his older brother. His brilliant idea had been to go to the old shooting range that was only ever used by people for drinking or smoking illicit drugs, something Marshall had decided wasn't worth doing. At least his brother wasn't doing any of those two things and another bonus to the whole experience was that they were shooting guns, which was something he actually did enjoy. Three concussive bangs rang out from the Type 51 each bullet flying true and hitting the target in a tight grouping. The teen chuckled through his cigarette, another thing that grated on him, and adjusted the wide brim hat that he was wearing, "You got it now brat."_

"_...Yeah, I was still a little off though," Marshall commented as he moved the pen from the unused target in front of him. It was for an exercise where he had to 'read' the trajectory and mark where the bullets were going to land before they hit._

_The teen peered over and shrugged," Not bad for just learnin' it, shoot more and more and it'll just be natural."_

_Marshall nodded in acknowledgment but paused in confusion when he saw a blindfold come out of his pocket. His brother laughed, the cigarette somehow never falling out of his mouth,"Whats wrong, you look like a fucking dumb ass right now."_

_Marshall squinted at the language but just shook it off as a different type of sibling relationship," What's the point of shooting blindly, you're just going to miss."_

"_Look, you can't account for everything, dirt, sand, juice from a lime because somebody can't squeeze it right," seemed like there was a story there," and you're going to have to shoot, so you need to be able to shoot without seeing."_

_Marshall looked at him oddly before reaching for the blindfold, putting it on, and drawing the Model 27 that he had grown up using. He heard his brother chuckle before saying, "Maybe you'll live match up to me yet, probably not though."_

Marshall almost laughed at how bad he did that day, and the fact his mind wandered there in this unfortunate situation. With no ears and no eyes all he had left were instincts and touch, both of which were good but still rather difficult to use on their own. He made sure the hammer on his gun was pulled back and loosened the muscles that had tensed in his worry. He needed this hit t-

A sudden blow to his side sent him sprawling on the ground letting him roll onto his face so his palm was on the floor. He felt a wheeze escape his mouth, and a little trickle of blood from where he must have bit his cheek. He strangled his breathing back under control and focused; The coarseness of his clothes, the trickle running over his lip, and from his palm the slight vibrations rolling throughout the floor. He tried to avoid wrinkling his brow or making any real movement in an attempt to disguise what his goal was.

It was difficult initially because he could feel two things moving, but he was quickly able to differentiate what he was feeling. It only took him about six seconds but he was able to tell that the user was approaching, based on the 'loudness' of the vibration, and was keeping his stand close by. Most likely he was still hesitant of 『FOUGHT THE LAW』and was waiting until he was positive his sound had taken hold.

Apparently that moment was right then, because he felt the lesser of the two vibrations suddenly move away and to the side. It made sense, in a way, since he had originally laid into the opposing stand when it grabbed him originally. However, He didn't account for the skills he had accumulated in his 32 years, rather his years in service..

In a fluid, almost rehearsed, movement Marshall exploded to a knee and squeezed out the remaining bullets while activating 『FOUGHT THE LAW』. As the bullets flew forward he guessed that he could have just fired the gun and hoped the bullets hit, but he never wanted to waste bullets. Especially since his stand was basically fifty percent skill and fifty percent homing, because all 『FOUGHT THE LAW』 did was make the bullets home in and not actually avoid any obstructions or deflections.

He left his thoughts behind and snapped back to his current dark and quiet reality. It was a few more seconds, exactly 22, and suddenly his vision began to return. It was like sludge being scraped off a window as the utter darkness began to ooze out of his vision, though his hearing returned at a quicker rate. He got to his feet and quickly looked over towards where he had felt his opponent through the vibrations and saw the body laying in a growing pool of blood. He winced a bit as he went to walk feeling the creek in his ribs but powered through to stand over the body.

He saw that his remaining bullets had impacted the chest, shoulder, and one had gone in and out of his throat. Marshall went to walk away before he paused, looked back at the body, and removed his handcuffs. He reached down and quickly handcuffed the two arms together, in doing so he was able to see how mangled they had gotten earlier in the fight.

One final click locked the handcuffs in place and Marshall stepped away from the body and began to reload his gun while quicking making his way down the hallway. He had a degree of faith that his deputies were going to be able to win their fights, or figure out a way around the opponent.

* * *

John kicked the plate door that had just dropped from the ceiling again in frustration. He and Seth had taken off down the hallway and were ready to fight if they needed to after Marshall had called out. The one damn thing he hadn't been ready for were these plate metal hazardous material quarantine doors. He didn't know why he didn't account for them, he had seen the fact it was a government medical research lab in the documents they had found so he should have figured that they would have this metal plating. It was required in all labs associated with the….why the hell did he know that.

John shook his head and got back to reality when he heard the not so subtle footfalls sounding off in the distance. He cracked his knuckles and started to get his body ready for a fight when he saw his opponent round the corner. He almost rolled his eyes at the large man who stomped toward him, it would have been imposing to most other people. But John couldn't find it in himself to care, especially since this was the bastard that put him in a fucking electric chair.

『RIDE THE LIGHTNING』came forward at the same exact time Leen summoned 『MR. EGO』 and he said, " Lets fuckin go!"

* * *

**STAND STATS**\- 『FOUGHT THE LAW』

User: Marshall Horse (uses mothers name: Lawson)

Strength: N/A (Relies on the power of the gun)

Speed: D (Slightly increases speed of bullet)

Range: C (Bullet range increases by a slight amount)

Durability: N/A (It's a gun)

Precision: B (Homes in on target but doesn't actively avoid obstacles)

Potential: D

『FOUGHT THE LAW』is similar to『HERMIT PURPLE』in nature, as it is an effect that occurs whenever Marshall is in contact with a gun associated with law enforcement . The words 'LAW WINS' appear in small print in stripes that cover the gun, at this point Marshall can declare a crime and fire the gun. The bullets then naturally home in on the nearest person who violated the crime, but do not naturally avoid obstacles meaning that if the opponent is behind a wall the bullets will simply collide with the law. To change the crime the gun is focused on Marshall has to reload the gun.

User history: Born to the nineteen year old daughter of a Drill sergeant when she had a one night fling after a night of heavy drinking. He grew up surrounded by military procedure and rules and that shaped much of his life. He eventually joined the Marines, but found himself the subject of MK-Ultra 908 when he was shot during one of his deployments. Soon after he developed his stand when he grabbed his old Model 27 for cleaning and the word "LAW WINS" spread like roots all over it. He finished his service and soon after joined the 'Bizarre' incident investigation division of the FBI, and with a string of successful operations he was assigned to the Mortis investigation. He encountered Joy about three years into the current seven year operation and decided then he was going to save her from being a victim by proxy of Mortis.


	12. Chapter 12

Mortis gently placed the emptied syringe back on the metal table, blood dripping off his gloved hands and pooling . He quickly grabbed the suture materials and began the methodical, and somewhat cathartic, process of sewing up his 'patients' chest. It was honestly a wonder to him that he actually managed to find a willing participant for this procedure, he was originally just going to kidnap at least three mid-twenty people and use them. It still amazed him at how quickly this man had agreed to a surgery that had so little science and so much mysticism, though he assumed that was just par for the course with stands.

The suture swam through the skin as he deftly closed the large gap that currently was his patient's chest, but a noise from behind caught his attention. He cast his gaze up at the darkened window that was across from him, and was able to see one of his 'assistants' trying to walk across the floor. He finally paused his stitching and turned on his heel to face the bold individual," Where exactly are you going?"

The assistant stopped dead in their tracks and looked towards Mortis, "To go get in the transport...I mean I've done my job."

Mortis recognized the voice as a recent med school graduate he had gotten onto the surgical team to operate some of the experimental equipment. It was a complexe machine that he was using to monitor the 'assimilation' of alternate 'souls', and any deviation from what he had identified as a base value could jeopardize the entire procedure. Mortis looked at the assistant oddly," The procedure isn't complete yet."

"I mean the number hasn't changed since the beginning," The assistant said while shrugging," And you're almost done so I thought I could get off early."

Mortis stared at the assistant before turning back around and picking up the suture and resuming the methodical process, this time lacking the cathartic edge. He felt a smirk creep onto his face though when he heard a sudden cry of pain explode from behind him. He shifted his gaze back towards the window and was able to see blood spreading across the assistants chest as his stand removed one of it's fingers. The assistant fell to the ground as more blood came from their chest, though Mortis thought it was a little too long….and far too peaceful. His stand slithered with it's spinal cord-esque tail to where it was almost laying directly on top of the bleeding assistant. It calmly moved its hand and straightened it's long, spindly, and razor sharp fingers over the assistants stomach before in a brutal and fluid movement drove it into the stomach. Once inside it maneuvered it's spindly arm deeper until it was under the ribcage, it soon found the assistant's heart. It's fingers encircled the heart and in a far too familiar movement it clenched it's hand into a fist.

Mortis almost could feel the heart explode as his stand carried out the command, and he felt his own heart hum with a sort of perverse joy. He would miss one of the few competent assistants in this entire organization... but he wouldn't have anybody jeopardizing the completion of this project. It was the culmination of his life's research and his ultimate opportunity to surpass the legacy of man who gave him these powers...though he could no longer remember the man's name given the modifications he had done to his body with his stand. He glanced up towards the reflection again and was able to see a few other of his assistants staring at the steadily growing blood puddle with what he assumed was fear, though he couldn't actually bother to give a shit about the lessers.

* * *

John and Leen kept circling each other ignoring the destroyed walls behind each other. Their initial attempted assaults had been blocked or dodged, and in the end neither had any actual damage. The golden form of 『MR. EGO』suddenly lunged forward with it's fist reared back full of intent to kill. John reacted and leaned his body to the side, his stand following the movement, and letting the fist narrowly miss. At the same time he let loose a brutal right hook with 『RIDE THE LIGHTNING』aimed directly at the opposing stands side.

『MR. EGO』tried to move back in time to dodge the attack, a pissed off grimace burnt on Leens face, and it came close to avoiding it completely. But it was too little too late, as 『RiDE THE LIGHTNING』's fist clipped the torso of Leens stand sending a brutal shock into both his opponents. John wanted to hear a scream of pain or even discomfort, but all he got was a flash of pain as a sudden backfist from 『MR. EGO』caught him in the shoulder sending him down and across the tile floor.

John quickly got his feet across from him and looked across the devastated hallway at Leen who at that moment was ripping his fancy button down shirt off. '_At least I know that I'm hitting him,' _John thought as he saw the burn decorating his side _,' But jesus christ it doesn't seem to be doing shit.' _He got back to his feet and let out a quiet grunt as he felt the lingering pain in his shoulder. It was still usable but damn did it hurt, his stand stood next to him harsh breaths and electricity coming off it's form. He snapped out of his slight stupor and quickly got ready to get in close again. Their stands were close in power and judging by the fact that neither had managed to land a solid hit, they were similar in speed.

John stopped thinking when Leen exploded forward, staying close behind his stand. A powerful punch narrowly missed, and the followup swing was just as close to hitting as well. He weaved his way around and threw a few solid jabs that connected, with each one sending shocks throughout Leen's body. Though without a second of hesitation『MR. EGO』 through another wide counter that John narrowly managed to drop under before quickly backing up in order to avoid an uppercut that may have snapped his neck if it connected. John stood back up and looked right at Leen who seemed to not feel anything at the burns that dotted his body. It was very disheartening to see these attacks amounting to nothing. John shook his head and refocused on the matter at hand, especially as Leen was now walking forward again, ready to do the same thing again. '_I'm really outgunned here.'_

Leen stepped in range and immediately his stand unloaded a volley of fists in an attempt to nail John who weaved and swayed, with『RIDE THE LIGHTNING』matching his movements. It was very much a battle of experience vs strength, as John was able to read what Leen was trying to throw. As John swayed back he felt something click as a buried memory came forward, a jolt of electricity running through him. It was an odd memory; him in a car with a pair of binoculars watching Leen and Priest go into a warehouse. He snapped back into reality suddenly as fist collided with his ribs sending him sprawling across the ground as pain shot through his ribs.

He heaved a little as his already cracked ribs screamed in pain, spitting a glob of blood out of his mouth. He felt so weak and powerless in comparison to Leen it was really, really starting to **PISS HIM OFF**. John felt his rage grow in huge bursts as he glared at the approaching form Leen, who was walking slowly towards him. As his rage built he felt more and more electricity course along his body, arcs crossing in smaller and smaller intervals as the charge built. As he felt his muscles involuntarily contract and tighten in response a sudden fog seemed to lift from his mind. Why the hell was he scared of Leen, why the fuck did he feel like he was going to lose, and more importantly WHY THE FUCK DID HE THINK THAT LEEN WAS BETTER?!.

John shot back to his feet as audible snapping and crackling could be heard as electricity coursed through his body. 『RIDE THE LIGHTNING』appeared at the ready the ammeter in its chest rising as John began to walk towards Leen now. Both stepped into close range, but this time John fired off first nailing 『MR. EGO』in it's face before quickly following up with a hook to the body. Leen didn't stagger and instead through the same punch he had every time, but this time John shifted back and overlaid his stand with his actual leg and lashed out with a kick that connected with Leens legs. Leen actually stumbled as the kick connected with his leg, his face didn't betray anything and he quickly grabbed 『RIDE THE LIGHTNING』by it's arm with his stand.

Very quickly John found himself slammed into the ground, though this time he didn't feel any feelings of inadequacy creep into his thoughts. He didn't have time to ponder too much as his already brutalized ribs were soccer kicked. Sending him sliding along the ground into the base of one of the un-decimated walls. He scrambled to his feet and was quickly met with Leen right in his face.『RIDE THE LIGHTNING』quickly appeared as 『MR. EGO』began a brutal assault, with punches flying from all angles.

* * *

Leen kept the assault going strong as his thoughts flashed back to the sudden shift that his opponent had gone through. It was as if a switch had been flipped because he had suddenly become more aggressive despite taking some perfect hits from 『MR. EGO』.

He felt his anger begin to grow as he thought about that specific moment. There was no way his ultimate stand could be harmed in any major capacity, but the fact that he was able to connect his punches was steadily getting on his nerves. He had briefly considered altering his strategy, but there was no need since his stands power and durability were very good. Hell in the organization his stand had the best outright power….. His thoughts suddenly jumped to Mortis, making his anger grow a little. He didn't understand why he worked for him, he should easily be able to take over and still accomplish the goals. Why was it that every time he talked or argued with Mortis he ended up in the same spot. Always the fourth behind Mortis and his lackeys no matter what he was able to do inside of the organization.

Leen snapped back into the moment when he felt an incredibly dull ache appear across his side. A quick glance let him see the stray leg that John had manage to to throw despite his current onslaught. In fact…..

Leen glared, and looked closer at what he was aiming at, and a snarl quickly found its way onto his face. John was using his stand and pure physical skill to keep his punches from doing anything more than just glance off his arms. Leen began to grind his teeth as he was now actually seeing his strikes do nothing more than bruise the skin. " How are you always this damn infuriating."

『MR. EGO』began to pick up pace, more and more fists flying forward in an attempt to crush John and his stand. " You're the damn reason I got stuck with the damn kid in the first place, the reason I got fucking demoted."

The wall behind John began to give, a spiderweb of cracks forming as John's feet left the as the punches literally began to lift him off the ground. The fists continued to not connect fully but the force behind them was obviously starting to take a toll. 『MR. EGO』reared back and delivered a a brutal straight to the center of John's body while screaming, " YOU STUPID FUCKING P.I. ."

John went through the wall with a huge crash, while at the same time Leen released a huge snarl. '_Take that you fucking bastard, everything you ruined….you pay for it now.' _

Suddenly Leen's left arm, the one he had slugged through the wall with, suddenly started spasming. Every muscle in his arm kept contracting and releasing sporadically as sparks now flew across his arm.

A chuckle sounded from the rubble of the destroyed wall," I remember everything now…._THANKS!"_

* * *

"FUCKING P.I." echoed in Johns ears as he felt the wall give way behind him.

As he fell through the air he felt a sudden rush of electricity surge through his body. '_FUCKING P.I…..that's what I am…..I… remember."_

John felt everything rush back to him in a feeling that could only be matched by his experience in the electric chair. He was able to remember every dumb thing from his childhood, the italian family get togethers, playing defensive tackle for a halfway decent football team, and most importantly to him….at least right now...was when he got his Private investigator license.

He had been a P.I. who had gotten a job to investigate corruption in a medical distribution company. Doing that he had caught a very small lead from an equally small time petty thief who had broken into one of their warehouses. He had followed it to California where after a lot of smooth talking and dumb luck he had managed to find a warehouse where….Mortis had managed to get him with that gun of his. He could still remember the intense pain that had coursed through his body as the leering form of Mortis had him dragged off to Alcatraz. And….well, it wasn't pleasurable to say the least but he learned some tricks being locked in a cell twenty four hours a day.

John opened his eyes and began to get to his feet, '_Speaking of tricks…."_

He heard the noise that Leen made as his little trick took affect, a unique part of 『RIDE THE LIGHTNING』being the fact that channeling the electricity causes the muscles to contract. So all he did was make his stand charged while just enduring Leen's attempt to pummel him to death.

" I remember everything now…._THANKS!" _He yelled out as he stepped out from the rubble and was able to see Leen trying to wrangle his arm under control.

『RIDE THE LIGHTNING』appeared right behind John and let loose an ear piercing shriek that made Leen step back for a second before reaffirming his footing and charging forward. John responded by having his stand let loose a bolt of lightning that impacted 『MR. EGO』rocking both the stand and the user back. Though almost immediately after it hit Leen lunged forward with a punch that managed to catch John along the side of his torso. John grimaced and immediately returned fire with a hook that Leen made no effort to dodge as it impacted the side of his face.

John ate another fist to the face as Leen fired one right down the pipe, but all it did was make his nose bleed. Both combatants took a step back, though as they backed up John let loose another bolt that was narrowly dodged. Leen shot back into close range and in response 『RIDE THE LIGHTNING』dropped an axe kick that was taken in exchange for another powerful blow to his already broken ribs. John staggered back before having throwing a knee that was narrowly dodged the follow up stomp that sent Leen and his stand to the ground.

John let out a few harsh breaths as he got used to new and somehow too familiar pain that was all over his torso. Leen also took his time as he inched his way off the ground, he was breathing heavily and had a confused expression on his face. A bemused look made its way onto Johns face as he saw Leen slowly felt the back of his head and brought his hand around front revealing blood.

* * *

Leen looked at his fingers and snarled when he saw the crimson red spread over his fingers. It was aggravating to have been pushed this far and beaten this much. He took a few deep breaths as he tried to plan out his next moves, but he found himself being drawn back to his current situation.

It was such a blow to his pride to be injured, and more so to see his punches deflected and made so ineffective….it made him feel so weak in comparison. It was a feeling that was still so alien to him, he had only really felt it when he first had fought Mortis. He also thought….NO, he had to be better than this nobody. All of his dreams and plans for the future relied on him thriving in this organization and he couldn't afford to fall here.

Leen finally got back into his stance but he felt so much heavier and much slower. He felt the pain going throughout his arms and even the burns along his torso began to hurt more. He suddenly felt the blood that was in his mouth and how split his lip actually was. He took a deep breath and『MR. EGO』appeared in front of him replicating his stance.

Something felt fundamentally wrong as he stared at the back of his stand, it normally seemed so much bigger compared to what he was seeing. There was no way that this should be happening...well it shouldn't have. He must have underestimated the power of John's stand because that bastard had somehow managed to deal him pain despite being hit over and over again by 『MR. EGO』.

John looked at Leen strangely as the wounds on his body seemed to worsen. Blood seemed to leak from his mouth and his burns seemed to grow as he stood there. When 『MR. EGO』reappeared it also seemed be more destroyed as chunks of it where blown straight off and torn to pieces. Still none of its power seemed to be lost as it exploded forward with the exact same vivacity it had every other time. It's fist exploded forward aiming for another killing blow that was dodged, though with less effort than previously.

John kept his pace up and kept the counters and pinpoint strikes flowing as Leen kept his strategy of brutal hooks and straights. But suddenly he felt a pressure appear on his arm; 『MR. EGO』 had clamped down with it's free hand restraining his ability to dodge movement.

John tried to shock the hand that was grappling his arm but found himself pulled forward and punched in the side (his good ribs this time). John folded over and tried to get any sort of air into his body, but the effort was interrupted by another blow to his stand's head knocking his vision sideways. He managed to get an arm to actually defend from the onslaught of punches, but he wasn't able to focus enough the send electricity into leen. He got fucking complacent and got pulled into the only area where Leen's stand was better; zero range combat.

Another punch rocked him and this time Leen tried to pull him off balance and send him down into the ground. John managed to catch his footing and endure the hit before gritting his teeth and pulling his arm back.

Immediately he was hit in the head, but he was ready and committed to taking this shot in order to land the one hit he needed. He saw 『Mr. EGO』shift as Leen went to line up another shot in his final push to put him down. Electricity coursed around and through his open palm as he shot his hand forward aiming for his heart. It landed on target and the effect was immediate; Leen suddenly dropped, 『MR. EGO』disappeared, and all the muscles around the area suddenly contracted causing immense pain.

John didn't hesitate at all this time and he quickly dropped a punch directly into the back of Leens head. Following the loud crack of the forehead meeting what remained of the tile floor, there was a resounding silence. 『RIDE THE LIGHTNING』disappeared with the sound of crackling electricity permeating the air. Almost immediately after his stand disappearing John began to pant heavily, and within three seconds he felt his muscles begin to contract and along his left arm a numb feeling began to spread. The blowback from channeling his stands electricity caught him by surprise still, though at least he could remember how he first learned about it. Though the sudden numbness in his body didn't distract from the now incredible and distracting pain that radiated from his ribs, especially since the adrenaline had long since worn off. "Son of a bitch, that felt good."

John leaned back and exhaled heavily as he felt a little joy at this payback, after all the asshole had been the one to strap him in an electric chair. His thoughts almost immediately shifted to what he had remembered moments ago, especially if his apartment hadn't been resold. He shook his head as he tried to knead his muscles as he began to walk down the hallway trying to figure out where he needed to go in order to make it around these annoying hazardous barricades.

As he began to meander down the hallway his thoughts drift to what he now was actually able to remember. Specifically the last phone call he had been able to make, to a family friend in the FBI, about where they had set up; Alcatraz. He almost laughed out loud when the reality of the fact hit him; He was the reason this entire show got started. He began to chuckle before stopping as his ribs screamed in intense pain.

* * *

Seth quickly backpedaled to avoid the punch that had just come sailing through the wall. Following the fist came the somehow still well dressed form of Free- he guessed it was based on how the description matched with the one from Joy. He remembered that she had said that he was capable of moving through objects and seemed to be fairly intelligent. He eyed the pacing form of Free as they both circled each other. Seth guessed the only reason that Free hadn't charged him was that he didn't know what his stand was.

Seth decided to pull the trigger first, and 『BALLROOM BLITZ』buzzed to life around him, fifty wings flapping and buzzing as the small cloud vibrated back and forth. Free rolled his shoulder before saying, " Not actually who I wanted to encounter….but I'll get it done."

The swarm quickly spread out in an attempt to surround Free but suddenly his stand appeared and Seth couldn't help but go wide eyed. Free simply activated what Seth guessed was his stands ability and he seemed to phase through the floor. The beetles dove through the now empty space before swiftly rejoining to the swarm that was buzzing around Seth in a protective sort of manner. He muttered out loud, " Alright, so he-"

Suddenly a hand reached out from, actually through the ground and latched onto Seth's ankle. He felt a pull on his leg, to the point that it was painful, but what followed was the rest of Free and his stand following with an upkick that connected solidly with his shoulder.. He felt the pain explode in his shoulder as Free smoothly returned to his feet and immediately stepped back into a wall, phasing through and disappearing into the next room.

Seth stared at the wall and cursed silently; He was in Free's playground, a place where he can come and go as he pleased...

* * *

**STAND STATS**\- 『RIDE THE LIGHTNING』

User: John Doe

Strength: A

Speed: B

Range: C

Durability: B

Precision: C

Potential: B

『RIDE THE LIGHTNING』is humanoid stand with blue skin and what resembles metallic restraints on it's wrists and ankles and a metallic 'blindfold' covering the area where it's eyes would be. It's ability is to generate electricity, that is measured with an ampere meter in it's chest, and then it can channel that electricity through its or the users body. It also possesses a great degree of physical power reflecting the physique of John, the user.

User History: A private detective from Chicago who was hired by a medical distribution company to investigate the disappearance of several high value shipments from a warehouse in the city. He used his investigative skills to find an infinitesimal paper trail of receipts, and vague documents. Through a mixture of dumb luck and a license plate number he managed to track the shipment over several months. He ended up in California where by connecting with a small time crook he was able to find a series of addresses that told him of three other locations in the US and a warehouse where he went to investigate the equipment. From there he was shot by Mortis's golden gun and taken to Alcatraz where he was basically tortured by Leen.


	13. Chapter 13

Free went through the wall and delivered another whip quick punch before swaying backwards as one of the beetles..stands…things dive bombed through where he had been standing. This time however he didn't go back to the wall, or rather through the wall this time. It really wasn't Free's style to hit and run, despite how perfect『SMOOTH CRIMINAL』seemed to be for that.' I really do like it better when I can fight people head on,' He thought despite the stinging across his chest.

Free dove forward and made his upper body permeable as he heard a buzzing coming from behind which allowed two of the flying things to move right through him. He took in the look of shock on his opponents face before firing a fist forward towards his opponent's torso. The man swayed backwards but was unable to completely get out of the way. It was a solid thud and the result sent him flying, but Free had been in enough prison fights to know that it didn't hit hard enough to do anything other than cause pain. Something suddenly sounded off in his head and he quickly threw himself to the side as a group of the damn things charged from behind. He should have made just himself permeable, but he had reverted back to his original instincts again. It really was his biggest issue since when he first began to use 『SMOOTH CRIMINAL』all he was able to do was reduce friction, hence the rather inaccurate name, but he eventually stretched the "definition" of his stand and got it to this point.

He snapped back into the present when he quickly had to dodge one of his opponents stands, or at least part of it, when it went for his foot. It seemed that he had figured out one of the issues with his stands ability; Part of him had to be solid to interact with anything. The stand clamped down in the spot where his foot had been, biting only air before the stands leg overlay-ed with his own before stomping down.

It was a solid thud, but when he removed his foot and quickly backed up he saw the thing still moving. He silently cursed his stand's horrible strength, though he quickly shut up as another three beetles flew through his back and out of his front. This time he had his stand swipe it's hand through a beetle in a chopping motion, hardening the part that was inside the stand. He let a rather sharp smirk show up on his face as the stand split down the middle, it's material pushed away by the sudden appearance of solid matter inside.

Free quickly refocused and blitzed his opponent shooting a fist through the quick construct the stand had put together in front of the user. He was able to feel his stands fist glance off what seemed to be his opponent's shoulder, though this time as he went to pull his arm back, but some of the opposing stand stayed with his currently ethereal arm. It wasn't a bad plan overall, especially since he was now down an arm as three of the stand currently buzzing in a close pattern around the area. It really did forcefully draw his focus to keep that arm in its current state which would make it hard to maneuver like he normally would and possibly he may slip tearing his arm to pieces….Only issue was that Free had very little to no self preservation at this point. He calmly focused on his arm and only returned the bones to being solid, spearing the stand at the same time he was forced to dodge. It was incredibly painful to only have the bone active, but in the end the plan was more than effective as with pained hisses the bits of the stand that where within his arm faded to nothingness allowing his arm to finally reform and the pain to subside. 'I'll never get used to exposed bone' He thought as he turned his attention back to his opponent.

Almost immediately he weaved his way around a flurry of punches that were suddenly thrown at him. He quickly backed up and cast a curious look at his heaving opponent. His eyes scanned over his opponent as they suddenly rushed towards him in what seemed a manic charge, something drug addicts in Green Dolphin would sometimes get like this. Of course the guards would just shoot them and dump the corpses in the morgue without a second thought.

A heavy handed right straight sailed towards Free's face, but it simply phased through his now etherious body. He stumbled through the entirety of Free's body when he followed up with a sloppy hook. He turned around to look at his stumbling opponent and took notice of the lack of stand's flying around and being general nuisances. His opponent turned around and stumbled towards Free once again, though this time he was able to notice one of the beetle like things clamping down on his opponent's arm.

His opponent rushed him again and Free simply let them rush right through his body, though this time he kept his eyes focused on his opponent's body. He was able to make out more of those weird things attached to the body, about six in total all digging into the skin. He also was able to make out pulsing veins spreading across the skin where the weird things were biting down. His opponent turned around again and rushed but this time Free gave an evil smirk. He once again phased through but as his opponent moved through his fingers resolidified spitting the skin and causing gashes to appear on the upper arm. He turned to look at his opponent and almost was caught with a spinning back fist thrown from the injured arm.

It took him aback for a second as he saw the wound ooze blood and contort as his opponent completed the spin. The eyes seemed to be glowing red as he began to move towards Free again looking to swing again judging by the tightened fists.

Free smirked and began to walk forward to meet his opponent, a plan already formulating in his head.

* * *

Mortis examined the machine the currently dead and bleeding medical tech at one point had been in charge of. All the levels looked normal and the drugs that were being pumped into the patients system were not exasperating any of the recent additions. He felt his lips curl up slightly under his medical mask at how the procedure had gone, especially considering the lack of precedent for anything like this. It honestly excited the doctor within him to be able to experiment around with something as abstract and immaterial as stands. It honestly made him wish he hadn't ruined part of his memory when he removed his ability to feel pain, since he really wanted to remember who gave him his stand.

He suddenly snapped up when the feeling of….something crawling down the back of his neck. His stand exploded out in response to that feeling and Mortis glanced up expecting somebody to be standing across the room. Instead he was met with a mass of purple tentacles expanding from the chest of his patient. The tentacles writhed for a second and reached towards Mortis before the color suddenly shifted to green.

Mortis cocked his head to side and stared through the medical goggles with an odd feeling creeping through his chest. The feeling quickly ended when the tentacle suddenly lunged and 'stabbed' him in the shoulder, and suddenly he felt his emotions change. Envy exploded throughout his body, his thoughts drifting back to his foggy memories with the man he strove to surpass. He felt that intense desire for the kind of power the shadowed figure in his memory had. He felt his stand simmer into existence as his muscles tightened while his emotions continued to run wild. His stand swiftly responded to its user's emotional state and deftly swiped with it's scalpel like fingers, and with surgical precision it severed the tentacle.

The writhing mass retracted and a cut suddenly opened up along the arm of his patient, and with a new found clarity devoid of raging emotions Mortis smiled. He was vaguely aware of his assistants' intense surprise, though he really began to care when the tentacles shifted color to yellow. Mortis could almost feel a cry of joy escape his lips as he stared at the mass of tentacles. He had succeeded in what could have been considered an impossible goal.

He paused his walk forward as the tentacles continued to writhe and instead directed his stand to instead take control of the sewing, which it did quite deftly before retreating back to stand by him. Mortis then pivoted on his heel and spoke to the nearest assistant," Begin the final stage and keep your eyes peeled for any abnormalities…it's almost done."

He had gotten a stand to exist, now the issue was making sure he was able to bind the foreign material to the body in order to prevent any complications down the line. He exhaled and wrangled his exhalation under control, since he had to be perfect in order to guarantee success on 『POWERSLAVE』. Though...he also had to give some credit to the patient; Ziti Valentino was truly a durable man.

* * *

Some of the haze lifted from Seth's mind and he was suddenly acutely aware of the pain radiating throughout his entire body. He glanced around the room trying to process where his unconscious instinct had moved him, and he immediately saw a large issue. That issue being the bisected and brutalized bodies of several of his beetles, which also accounted for his regained consciousness.

His initial, well secondary, plan had been to catch Free off guard by making himself go berzerk with 『BALLROOM BLITZ』. However, he hadn't figured that Free would target the beetles so quickly, especially after he had gone out of his way to make them bite him in hard to reach places. He guessed that this was the difference between somebody like Priest and somebody who understood their stand on a deeper level.

Free suddenly spoke up drawing Seth's attention," So….I can assume that you are mostly back now."

Seth summoned his remaining beetles, twenty-nine out of his original fifty, before giving a cautious response," I heard you weren't the most talkative person."

Free shifted his position and ran a hand down his face, his posture exuding exasperation, " I've just spent the last two minutes listening to nothing but deranged grunts and growls, at this point I just wanted you to shut up."

He began to pace to his left getting Seth to mirror the movement, despite the wounds on his body. It was odd, he thought as he paced, he's so lackadaisical yet I can't even get him to slip up. Normally he could get his opponent to make a mistake or open their guard for him to attack. Yet with Free he couldn't even touch him, in the literal sense, and judging by his twenty-ish missing beetles he sure as hell wasn't going to win without pulling some sort of trick. Seth snapped out of his internal tangent when Free exploded forward his stand lashing out with a kick.

The beetles quickly moved the swarm to the area where the kick was going to land, and Seth also threw himself to the side trying to avoid it. He was a little too slow to avoid it entirely and he tightened his core muscles to brace for the pain. However…. He wasn't prepared for the stands foot to phase through both his makeshift shield and then his torso.

Pain exploded through his body as it felt like a hot knife was being slammed into his gut. The foot exited his gut with a trail of a few blood drops following the white foot of the stand. Seth almost fell to the ground, but quickly had a few of his beetles clamp down and pump him full of adrenaline. That only dulled the intense pain, and made the truth hurt a lot more; he was severely outclassed in terms of skill.

He stumbled back and quickly observed the empty look that now adorned his opponents face. "I don't enjoy doing this to people, but I need to finish you off."

Seth scrambled back and directed part of his remaining swarm towards Free, who calmly moved forward and let the beetles move right through him. In several steps Free closed the distance, shifted his weight, and launched a fist forward. Purely on instinct Seth Through up his arms despite being fully aware that nothing he had was stopping this. Pain suddenly exploded throughout his broken arm drawing his attention before more pain exploded in his collarbone as a little of the phantasmal fist materialized.

Seth bit his tongue to the point of drawing blood as he stumbled backward reacting to the sudden pain. He kept himself on his feet but really was in no actual position to do anything, since even with his stand dulling pain he was still overwhelmed by it.

He was suddenly distracted by blood exploding from his chest as Free's stand had taken advantage of his current pain to cut him across the chest with his ability. Seth was only saved by his bodies involuntary flinching, and even then it still wasn't a large difference. He was vaguely aware of his body hitting the ground, but all he really was able to feel was pain exploding across his entire body.

Free had his stand shake it's hands to get the blood off of them, keeping his hands clean being a small quirk he still had from when he was just a thief. It was odd, he honestly missed those days when he had been a petty thief before getting sent to Green Dolphin. After that….well he currently worked with a complete psychopath who treated people like soiled handkerchiefs. He rolled his shoulders and refocused on his unfortunate opponent. He really didn't want to kill the fool, hell he honestly didn't want to kill anybody, but he had to stay in Mortis' good graces. 『SMOOTH CRIMINAL』readied it's hands as he strolled forward, already planning out the cleanest kill possible.

He stood over the man and readied the final punch when his instincts suddenly screamed at him. His stands ability activated and with mild discomfort something invisible passed through his torso. The feeling left his body and he quickly spun around to see his new opponent, and found himself met with a slightly familiar face. " Well, I guess that means that Priest didn't get anything done."

* * *

Joy Jordan stood about eight feet away from him with a scowl on her face, and a solid chain wrapped around her left hand and he guessed the ethereal chain was attached to her right. He also was able to notice some injuries dotting her body, though nothing seemed incredibly major or debilitating. The wound on his torso throbbed as he passively observed the movements her right hand made, since after their last fight he had looked over the security footage and was able to put together a general idea of what caused his wound.

Her wrist flicked out and in response he made his entire body permeable and dashed forward, the uncomfortable feeling moving through where his once solid head had been. He closed the distance and 『SMOOTH CRIMINAL』lashed out once he was in range. It's punch was countered by Joy's stand, resulting in a clash of power that his stand quickly lost.

Blood dripped from his hand as both he and his stand readjusted their stance, and quickly lashed out with a kick. This time the attack connected with the stand as she was unable to get her stand to check the kick. Though Immediately after he was forced to render himself impermeable in order to avoid both the phantom chain and the material one.

He took a step back as her stand slammed it's fist hard into the floor creating a mess of cracks. With some distance made between himself and the new opponent He quickly evaluated several factors: His stand was a little quicker, a lot less powerful, but it seemed to be a lot more precise. He could also guess that it's durability was better, but it didn't make a huge difference in the scope of this fight. Overall the real issue, he thought as snaking chains comprised of concrete and tile began to construct, is the goddamn chains she can make.

Joy launched the salvo of quickly constructed chains toward Free, less in an attempt to hit him but more just to block his vision. She knew how the last fight had gone, but this time she had learned a bit from thinking back to the fight. Her musings were cut short when the blue and white stand of Free exploded from the salvo and launched a kick at her head. She overlaid her stand with her arm and raised it in an attempt to block it, but it phased right through it.

However, She had been prepared and the moment the foot went to connect with her head she had 『ALICE IN CHAINS』punch the leg. She was able to make out a pleasant sounding hiss from where she guessed Free was. Only issue was that she was fairly positive that it hadn't done any major damage. Her brief train of thought was cut extremely short as Free and his stand exploded forward and quickly phased through her hastily prepared guard. Time seemed to slow down as she was able to see the sharp white fingers enter her bicep without breaking the skin, and soon after pain exploded from within her bicep.

She very quickly backpedaled and quickly tested her arms range of movement; and it wasn't great. Thankfully it seemed as if he had only damaged the muscle and not completely ruined it somehow. Her stand quickly lashed out as well getting Free to halt his attack and adjust his stance. Joy managed to get her body under control and spared a short glance at Seth, who was alive but still in a world of pain. Her mind quickly ran through all the ideas she had after talking it over.

She shifted her weight forward and lashed out with the solid chain aimed at the Free's face. And as it began to phase through his face she lashed out with her chain of wind, relishing in the slight feeling of connection that came back along the chain. She quickly brought the solid chain back and settled back into a stance while Free examined the cut now spanning his chest.

She couldn't help but grin at the annoyed and pissed expression that made its way onto Free's face. It had been one of the ideas that Marshall had suggested; that the ability required intense precision and a lack of sight may disrupt it. She ran a hand across her face to wipe some sweat away and after that quarter second she regained her sight to be able to see the tail end of Free disappearing through the floor. A single word escaped her lips at this sudden change," Shit."

She quickly began to run through different possibilities before a figure exploded through the floor in front of her and quickly nailed her stand with two quick punches, not dealing a lot of damage but causing enough to be noticeable. She once again backpedaled and lashed out with some new concrete chains, but only nailed a concrete wall that Free had phased through. Now she didn't know whether or not he was even on the same floor

That question was almost instantaneously answered as from the wall next to Seth 『SMOOTH CRIMINAL』emerged , throwing a punch downward. She frantically lashed out wrapping the solid chain around his torso and yanked him away from the punch. The fist impacted the ground with a solid thud before disappearing behind the maze of walls. She rolled her shoulders and quickly created several more concrete chains from the torn up floor around her. She was distracted from her frantic eye movement when Seth finally spoke up;" Joy -gah- I think I have a p-plan."

Joy glanced down at the pain wracked form of Seth and raised an eyebrow before he continued," 『BALLROOM BLITZ』, grk, can get into each room and when they find him you can go through the wall and try to finish him quickly."

Joy looked down at him somewhat amazed that he had been able to come up with that plan despite being what looked like intense pain. She just nodded her head and kept her defense up as she saw the blue beetles of 『BALLROOM BLITZ』take off and enter one of the rooms.

After that it was a steady silence with only the faint sound of buzzing wings echoing back towards them. She looked down towards Seth who was intensely focused, probably using his stand to feel out the other several seconds Seth directed his hand to the wall to her left. Joy put her head down and ran to the wall making 『ALICE IN CHAINS』reach out and touch converting the plaster wall into a few hundred weak and fairly thin chains. As the wall reassembled itself she was able to see Free as he danced around the beetles of 『BALLROOM BLITZ』 with a few of them laying dead at his feet. She gathered up all her chains and shot them forward right as Free turned to face the sudden noise behind him.

There was a sudden explosion of dust as the plaster chains shattered and Joy stood there with eager anticipation. Especially considering she really hadn't had a leg to stand on the last time they fought. Her elation was suddenly cut short when a kick exploded from the dust and collided with her ribs, sending her off her feet and into the ground. She scrambled back to her feet and looked through the dust as the form of Free emerged, with his dress shirt torn and blood leaking from several new wounds decorating his body. She really shouldn't be shocked, but after that salvo she expected him to be at least limping.

He proved that the damage wasn't to bad as he exploded forward forcing her on the defensive with her stand. Especially since she could only counter at the exact moment the hit would impact, which meant that she couldn't take advantage of her greater strength. With the next hit however, she managed to grapple the strike and make the stands get entangled with each other. She then stepped towards him and through a punch, since even without her stand she is still incredibly strong. Only issue was that she actually had to hit her target, and Free just as easily made the transition between stand fighting and normal unarmed fighting. He swayed back with practiced making the punch miss before trying to counter, only to have it be blocked by her guard. She went to throw another punch but felt the wounds from her fight act up, slowing it down and weakening it, getting her thrown into the ground. She quickly re-summoned her stand to her side and used it to block a stand enhanced soccer kick from Free. It still sent her sliding across the floor, but the only damage she took was from her body scraping across the floor.

She rolled to her stomach and pushed herself up and stared down Free as he went to make his way towards her. Though he suddenly flinched in pain as a flash of blue appeared on the back of his calf. He spun around and with the hand of his stand he pierced the beetle and killed it. Joy took advantage of the distraction to charge him and try to get close, only to have her outstretched arm captured and the entirety of her thrown through the remnants of the wall she destroyed earlier. She hit the ground and felt her teeth rattle as she came to a stop, dust now coating most of her clothes and skin. She picked her head up with a groan and looked straight ahead to where there was a small fire burning. It was probably lit when she broke the room with her salvo, which in itself was kind of lucky. She went to push herself up but paused while she stared at the flame, a new concept entering her mind. She had been able to see some degree of discomfort when her air chain, or whatever it technically was, so was it possible to hurt him without hitting him? Thinking about that idea she also flashed back to the truck stop where she made chains out of water, the turning point when she had figured out that her chains don't need to be inherently solid. So with that in mind she reached forward and wrapped her hand around the flame causing a painful burning sensation to spread, but very quickly she saw the fruits of her labor. The flame stretched out and expanded forming a new weapon she could use.

She finally heard the footsteps of Free get closer and closer, and after a few more steps she whipper her arm backward sending the flame whip cracking through the now incorporeal Free. Though this time she could see pain visibly present on his face, and even got him to back up several steps in pain. She quickly scrambled back to her feet and readied her new chain, "Alright, you mother fucker lets go."

She exploded forward the chain lashing out with unnatural precision forcing Free to go intangible again. The chain phased into his torso eliciting a grunt of pain from her opponent while he backed up. The chain finished it's arc and Joy quickly whipped it back across trying to catch Free on the back swing. However this time he dove forward onto the ground and slid forward with unnatural speed right into her legs. Her eyes widened and she attempted to have 『ALICE IN CHAINS』catch him with a downward punch, only to have pain exploded in her thigh as his stand hand jabbed both of it's hands into her leg. She stumbled backwards but still managed to shoot a kick down, only to have it parried away from any real connection. Free immediately went for another punch, but out of nowhere six beetles slammed into his back breaking the skin.

* * *

Free was officially past the point of being pissed and was now into being completely lived. He quickly had his stand spear the beetles killing them off and removing the pain in his back. He quickly delivered another strike to Joy who whipped back with the flaming chain, though this time he was ready for the discomfort as it passed through him. He winced a little as he felt the heat move through his body, something he honestly could only describe it as being cooked alive, but he ignored it and phased his fist into Joys stomach sending what he imagined was large amounts of pain all throughout her body from having a foreign object touch her internal organs.

He saw her grab her stomach and cry out in pain, which gave him the opportunity to turn around and make a dash to where his original opponent was. His eyes quickly locked on the injured form which had gotten back on its feet. Free barreled towards him and used the lesser version of 『SMOOTH CRIMINAL』ability to reduce the resistance and increase his speed. He saw the look of fear and surprise make its way onto his unfortunate opponents face as the gap was suddenly reduced to zero. Though the look was quickly removed when his stand connected with the face sending the man slamming into the wall and easily knocking him unconscious.

Free stood over the downed opponent breathing heavily for a moment before turning around to where Joy had gotten back to her feet and now possessed two chains made of fire. He spit some blood out of his mouth before taking off in a run towards her. She lashed out with both the chains as soon as they were in range, and he let the first one phase through him. An intense heat filling up the inside of his body throwing off every single internal process. The second chain however he let ensnare one of his arms, scalding the skin but also letting him pull Joy off balance.

She stumbled towards him caught off guard by his tanking of the second hit, which made her unable to counter the punch to the side of her head. He knew that punch made her ears ring and hopeful she was disoriented as he went for a sweep with his leg. Thankfully it seemed to be that as Joy crashed into the ground and quickly had her vision filled by the white fist of 『SMOOTH CRIMINAL』slamming her head into the ground.

Free stood there panting over Joy for a minute as he took in the sudden silence. He looked down at Joy and over at the other man before beginning to walk away, though it was more of a sway as he made his way down the hall. It would be so easy for him to kill the two unfortunate fools, but….despite his association with Mortis he wasn't a killer. A thief, a thug, and a maimer for sure but he still had yet to cross that line. Though, it also as an incentive that they were working against Mortis, since this gave him an opportunity to game both sides. If Mortis kills them off and succeeds Free guarantees himself a spot in a new criminal organization and a fair amount of money, but if these FBI or special agent people succeed in beating Mortis he has a chance to escape his control or a lesser sentence.

Free stumbled against the wall and glanced up at an destroyed clock and saw the time, at least 15 minutes past the end of the procedure. Free smirked and continued his walk down the hallway towards the exit, where he hopefully expected to find a mercenary and at least a goddamn first aid kit.

* * *

STAND STATS- 『ALICE IN CHAINS』

User: Joy Jordan

Strength: A

Speed: B

Range: D

Durability: B

Precision: C

Potential: B

『ALICE IN CHAINS』is humanoid stand with gray skin, red nails and human like facial features, though the eyes are entirely red. It wears a dress that is adorned with small circular suns that turns into chains when it reaches the knees. It has a similar athletic physique to Joy and it's appearance reflects her general punk nature. It's ability is to create chains out of different materials and control them. It isn't bound by the state of the material, though with things like water, air, and fire it requires an incredible amount of focus to keep it in that shape.

User History: At the age of thirteen her home was invaded by Mortis for her father's research into the mythology of something called the arrow. Her father and mother were killed and she was shot by his golden gun, causing her stand to manifest. Several months later, August specifically, she met Marshall who was already on the Mortis case with Jason. She was attacked by an unknown stand user and saved by Marshall, who decided that it was more dangerous to leave her alone and decided to take her into protective custody. She continued 'schooling' with Jason and Marshall 'teaching' her over the next four years. She also proved to be a valuable member of the team as she was quick to pick up the general skill of her stand.


	14. Chapter 14

Mortis paced back and forth as assistants maneuvered around the corpse on the ground, though the blood puddle resulting in an interesting pattern now spanning the floor. He turned away from the rather bloody trail and quickly flipped through the various printed readouts checking for any odd numbers or figures. The procedure rested on a razors edge since any deviation from the received values could spell disaster, especially in the case of turned to address one of the assistants, when a sudden series of bangs sounded over the bustle of the surgery suite.

There was a sudden deathly quiet that Mortis made use of to summon his stand and put it to work patching up the more life threatening wounds. With well rehearsed precision his stand cut and stitched his body back together, making use of the surgical thread he always kept with him. Despite the feeling of flaying skin Mortis pivoted his head and pinpointed Marshall standing in the main entrance. Admittedly he wasn't surprised that his subordinates failed at actually stopping the invading force, though he had faith that Free had managed to take a few out of commission. He supposed it said something that a former thief was his most trusted ally, especially since Rod had been killed. He snapped back to the moment as the last suture pulled tight coinciding with the moment Marshall fired his second volley of bullets.

His stand lashed out grabbing the two closest assistants by their shirt collars and slamming them in front of Mortis as a makeshift shield. As the two slammed heads the bullets changed their trajectory to going up and over his shield, still targeting him however. However, that change gave his stand enough time to adjust itself and pick off the bullets before they were able to reach his body.

As his stand deflected the final bullet Mortis fixed his attention onto the two dazed assistants, sparing them a passing thought, '_it wasn't as if this was going to end with them alive_ _anyway.' _His stand then swiftly used it's fingers to kill the assistants, before Mortis kicked the newly made corpses towards Marshall.

As the corpses landed Mortis reached out and called upon his stand's ability and let the grin he had been suppressing crawl out onto his face. Despite his annoyance with Marshall and his annoying gaggle of complete fools, he always enjoyed a chance to test his stand against another. '_All in the name of progress…'_

* * *

Marshall kept his face neutral and breath under control as he quickly reloaded his Model 27. It was not great that Mortis knew the biggest weakness of『FOUGHT THE LAW』; The bullets will never hit a person who is innocent of the declared crime. The fact that Mortis remembered that from their first encounter was worrying because it put into question how much Mortis actually knew about this investigation and others. Marshall snapped back as the last bullet slid into the chamber as the two fresh corpses sailed towards him. He noticed the tightening of the clothes of both of the bodies, and quickly remembered one of Mortis's abilities before diving behind some sort of medical equipment.

As he hit the ground there was a wet ripping sound followed by several screams and yells as the two corpses exploded in a shower of viscera and bone splinters.

Marshall exploded back to his feet and quickly noted that there was now a growing pile of dead assistants around Mortis caused by his stand. It's spinal like tail whipped around limbs, throwing the unfortunate people off balance, while the claws made short work of their flesh. He elected to ignore it and took aim at Mortis declaring, '_Guilty of Murder in the First', _and firing at the same time. Marshall quickly reloaded his gun as he kept his eyes focused on Mortis, who seemed rather unworried based on his posture. The confident posture was confusing for Marshal to see,l because based on what he knew Mortis was capable of slowing down or speeding up any of the processes of decay or associated processes AND his stand was definitely unable to react quick enough to block all the bullets.

He went wide eyed when he received his answer in the form of one of the recently killed assistants exploding to their feet and acting as a shield. Despite his shock he still categorized the two pieces of information he had learned; 『FOUGHT THE LAW』doesn't recognize corpses as an innocent person, and Mortis has new abilities he doesn't know about. Mortis suddenly spoke up confirming his second piece of information, "It's a little different than what you remember isn't it?"

Marshall didn't respond, but Mortis continued on anyway," Whoever holds the power dictates the tides of history, and with this power I'll drive the world forward and succeed where they have failed."

He kept his eyes steeled after hearing what could be called an insane and radical message delivered by somebody who is clinically sociopathic. Though it was a fight to keep his face neutral when all the dead assistants pushed themselves up to their feet before beginning to make their way towards him.

He backpedaled as the shambling bodies made their way forward, reminding him of some of the movie trailers Joy would talk about. However he did notice that Mortis had put himself near some cover but was still in the open to watch the fight progress. He snapped his eyes back to the leading corpse of the mob as it tripped over itself. He calmly raised his pistol and fired two shots into its head, since it was oddly stiff in its movements.

The two bullets tore through and caused the body to once again drop to the ground. However, Marshall noticed that the remaining assistants suddenly picked up their pace and seemed to move with greater control than before. He immediately backpedaled again as he put two and two together; the more corpses Mortis had to control the more fine motor control was lost. '_Though the method to eliminate them seems straightforward,' _he thought while backing up and firing the remaining four bullets between the two closest.

He went to plant his feet and reload his gun, but suddenly found both the corpses, with both their heads bearing bullet holes, reaching out in an attempt to grab his pistol bearing arm. He quickly batted the hands away and slammed his back into the wall while quickly reviewing all the information;

_The first one had been killed by two shots to the head, so what made these two different. Marshall dodged the reaching hands and moved along the wall while he quickly reconstructed the initial two shots. The first bullets had pierced about a inch below the hairline and tore through the frontal, parietal, and occipital lobes, normally a guaranteed kill on any living thing, which was the logic he had used originally. The second bullet had been a little lower, almost going straight through the nose, and would have torn through...he racked his brain for his anatomical knowledge...the cerebellum _

It suddenly all clicked as Marshall dodged another grabbed and slammed in the final two bullets to fully reload his gun. It wasn't a new ability, like Mortis had claimed at all, instead it was the same ability, control over dead organic material, applied in a different manner. All he was actually was doing was taking control and manipulating the dead cerebellum to make the body move. Knowing that he had figured it out he calmly waited for one of the corpses to lunge, and in response he shoved his pistol in it's slack mouth and fired. He swapped his targets letting loose two shots before a sudden sharp pain exploded in his calf.

He glanced down and was able to see the arm of Mortis stand having ripped through the outstretched arm of the first body he had killed. He aimed his pistol down, but the arm faded away in time for one of the remaining corpses to tackle him. The other three corpses descended on him like hyenas creating a large dog pile in which he was being bludgeoned and bit . He grimaced as a pair of jaws clamped down on his shoulder, but he managed to get the gun to his other hand before putting it to the side of the offending head and slamming the trigger. The jaw went slack and he got his free hand under its jaw and pushed it up enough that he could scramble out. In doing so he pistol whipped one of the offending corpses hard enough to break the skull, though it didn't actually prevent it from grappling him. It's fingers, now much stronger with another corpse dead, clamped down on the leg that had been gored making him grit his teeth in order to avoid yelling. He slipped his pistol holding hand free and unloaded the remaining bullets into the top of it's head without even really aiming. Thankfully one of the bullets actually hit the cerebellum making it drop stiff and allowing him to get out of the pile, though he internally swore when he realized his pistol was empty.

That worry was shortly lived as the corpse on the bottom suddenly swelled with gas prompting Marshall to use his one good leg to create as much distance as possible. It wasn't a second too late since right as he pushed off the body erupted in a shower of viscera and bone shards. Marshall couldn't help but grind his teeth harder as some of the bone shards went through his pant leg and tore into his already gored leg. Thankfully the impromptu organic grenade had also killed one of the remaining two corpses, leaving one stand enhanced corpse. Said corpse wasted no time charging after Marshall who had just pushed himself up to a shaky standing position. He managed to slam a speed re-loader into his pistol and open fire, though he wasn't aiming at the corpse as it tackled him...in fact he wasn't even aiming. He activated『FOUGHT THE LAW』 and declared '_Guilty of Medical Malpractice' _and sent the bullets hurtling through the room towards Mortis, who attempted to get behind cover but was just a man and didn't have the talent or ability to read trajectory and ended up catching four of the six bullets, One in the shoulder, Two in the left arm, and one impacting the hip from the sound, before he made it fully behind cover.

Marshall, however, was once again made an acquaintance of the ground but it was the corpse went slack, the focus needed to control it broken. He threw it off ignoring the pain emanating from broken ribs and a mauled leg and struggled to his feet. One hand reached inside his viscera decorated suit jacket, and at the same moment from the corpse exploded outward.

* * *

Mortis hit the ground and almost let out a scream, not one of pain but of annoyance at his body being put into this state. It had been a complete oversight to believe that Marshall was completely entangled with the corpse soldiers, and that he wouldn't be able to determine the precise location needed to cease the movements. '_Well,' _he thought as he observed his bleeding arm," _Such is the price of pride.'_ He wasn't too worried though because he knew the corpse was still close to Marshall, which meant his close range stand could be summoned farther away.

It was an interesting ability, the ability to increase the range of his stand by using a dead corpse as a mostly made use of it to compensate for his stands rather lackluster speed, and it let him catch his target off guard. As he pushed himself up off the ground he quickly activated his stands ability making the corpse swell and explode, while at the same time he directed his stand to attack while Marshall should be blinded by viscera.

He smirked at what he assumed to be his success as he made his way to his feet, when suddenly his left side exploded in a shower of blood with large hole shaped wounds appearing. He spit out a glob of blood in shock, and after trying to wipe it away with his left arm realized it was thoroughly decimated. He quickly recalled his stand to his side and stepped out from his cover…

* * *

Marshall was able to catch the fingers lunging towards his chest, but this time he pulled his secondary weapon; A Franchi Model PA-8 with the collabsable stock removed. It was originally a weapon created for Italian law enforcement but given the nature of his stand it was a great fit, and the only reason he hadn't used it before was that he was legally required to limit his lethal force. Against Mortis however he had no restrictions, and he made liberal use of that as he fired the buckshot shell again only missing because the stand disappeared.

He pumped the forearm again as he turned to fire at where Mortis had been hiding when he heard him say," Now I understand how pride comes before the fall."

He completed the turn only to find the spinal column-esque tail whipping forward forcing him to bring up the gun in an attempt to block. It rattled his arms and made his body shake, but he didn't have time to acknowledge it as he then had to dodge the followup swipe by its scalpel sharp claws. He stepped back and felt something squish underfoot, and a quick glance down showed him one of the earlier corpses. It suddenly swelled and detonated giving him barely enough time to raise his arm and fall to the ground, since he still couldn't run with his bad leg. The biological grenade went off sending visceral everywhere and dousing in more flesh, though that was least of his worries as Mortis stand pounced towards him again making him roll out of the way.

He quickly shoved himself up ignoring the pain in his leg and firing off another shell from his shotgun. As it fired the pellets arced around the stand and headed straight towards Mortis, but his stand grabbed one of the destroyed corpses and throw it back towards it's user in time to intercept the bullets. Marshall grit his teeth and leveled the barrel before firing his last shell directly at the stand. And even he couldn't help but swear out loud as it leapt into one of the eviscerated corpses. The pellets flew into empty air and Marshall quickly began to reload the gun while swearing," What The Fuck!"

"You know," commented Mortis while holding his limp arm and dripping blood," When I said my new ability I was lying about that technique….but you will be the first in exactly seven months and fourteen days too see my newest ability."

Marshall watched with morbid caution, while slamming shells into the gun, as the body began to twitch before getting to its feet. As it stood up Marshall could see the writhing tail of the stand inside one corpses blown open torso. He turned the gun forward and pulled the trigger, aiming for the living corpse, only for it to charge straight forward ignoring the pellets impacting the body. It closed the difference and with an inhuman yell punched forward barely clipping his shoulder but still knocking him off balance. He slammed his bad leg down, being forced to ignore the intense pain shooting through his body, and fired the shotgun point blank obliterating the top of the corpses head. It did little as Marshall then caught a fist to the ribs that sent him into one of the machines.

As he caught himself with one arm and coughed up blood, Mortis began to talk," I hope you enjoyed trying to get revenge for your murdered compatriots, but you should have known it would have been an ultimately fruitless effort," Marshall felt fear actually creep down his spine as the severely injured man kept talking," I have the very power of death at my fingertips, a corpse is a living weapon, a shield, and a vessel for my stand...and it's still improving. So I have to ask….Did you really believe that you could stand a chance against the『CREEPING DEATH』."

Marshall propped himself back up, feeling even more of his ribs creek, and looked towards the macabre flesh suit 『CREEPING DEATH』was wearing. It blitzed towards him and ate another of the buckshot filled shells before closing a hand on the gun and crushing the gun barrel, before ripping it out of his hands and backhanding him to the ground again. As Marshall fought back a yell of pain while he rolled away from the stomp, '_It's strength hasn't increased any but the body is acting as a shield, so the buckshot isn't hitting the stand."_

Another stomp missed him by an inch and he took the opportunity to redraw his Model 27 and slip three bullets into the chamber. Before a powered stomp impacted sailed towards his face forcing him to move, but as he did he raised the pistol and without using 『FOUGHT THE LAW』 he fired one bullet directly into its knee, unable to support its weight. '_Seems the body can't move if it's physically impaired.' _He quickly switched it's target and shot the other knee grounding it permanently. He pivoted and went to shoot at Mortis when an explosion of pain in his ribs caused him to curl up out of pure reflex.

He glanced down and saw the fist of the corpse embedded in his side, apparently fired like a projectile from the body. Suddenly the fist began to swell and the skin began to split before it violently exploded sending Marshall flying across the room and slamming into the wall. He managed to maintain consciousness, but pain filled his entire body, though he could still hear the cruel calm voice of Mortis, "You thought you had figured it out right? The way to stop this ability….except you forgot about it's base ability to manipulate dead organic material."

* * *

Mortis began to walk forward as the corpse went limp and 『CREEPING DEATH』 appeared by his side. He was enjoying this now, the elimination of one of the major thorns in his side and the completion of his life's work. "My stands only real weakness is its speed and even then you couldn't capitalize on that."

He walked forward, fully aware of the remaining bullet in the chamber, and readied his stand to finish off Marshall. Some small part of him had to acknowledge the tenacity of the FBI agent, but in the end he wasn't letting anybody get in the way of his goal. Especially now that Living Colour had succeeded, at least preliminary, which put Powerslave in an attainable position. He snapped back from his reminiscing and had his stand prepare to decimate Marshall's body. The pistol came flying at out and mortis didn't even flinch as the bullet left the chamber and tore through his left shoulder, further destroying the arm.

A normal person would be worried or upset about the complete mutilation of his left arm, but Mortis couldn't care less. Especially since with 『CREEPING DEATH』 he can force the blood vessels to pump, muscles to weave themselves, and he can stitch it up himself. In honesty that was why he fell in 'love' with his stand, the sheer amount of versatility and focus on biological matter. For a doctor, or rather former doctor, he found himself in his element and was in a very good position. It really made him grateful to the man whom he had spent very little time with but still left a large imprint on his life, as his influence sent him down this path. It honestly made him wish he could remember the face or even the name, but the alterations he had done to his brain had scrambled a good deal of his memories. He snapped out of his memories of the past and had his stand begin to slowly pierce the skin.

At least that was the plan until the hair on the back of his neck stood up, prompting him to use his stand to shove him out of the way. It was just in time as well, since a bolt of lightning tore the area he was standing a moment ago.

* * *

John sprinted down the stairs three at a time, trying to make up for the time he had lost dealing with the damn lockdown doors. He had been forced to take the long way around to find any sort of staircase and even then it only took him down a single floor. At least after backtracking he had managed to find the correct staircase and the emergency release code for the security system, so it wasn't completely pointless. He hit another landing and swung himself around by grabbing the handrail in order to keep his momentum. '_Honestly...despite getting them back not much has really changed,' _he thought as he slammed through a set of doors.

He had somewhat expected a large life shattering revelation from the returning of his memories, but all he got was info on the next address and the reason he ended up in Alcatraz in the first place. That reason being an investigation into disappearing medical supplies, using a trail that he had found through a small paper trail and some dumb luck with underpaid thugs. However it had all come to a head when he broke into a warehouse where he had been caught and threatened before being shot by Mortis's golden gun. He snapped back to the present as he kept his pace up as he cut past more generic office doors before rounding a corner and laying eyes on what should be the door the the main lab….assuming he read the map right.

He slowed his steps up and stopped right outside the door, breathing rather heavily but there was no way he was going to stop smoking. He peered through the window and caught sight of Mortis, dressed just as he remembered him, looking down towards the injured form of Marshall. He noted the heavily injured arm and felt a small degree of satisfaction knowing that Marshall had plugged him a few times, or one judging by the spread of the wounds. He quickly summoned 『RIDE THE LIGHTNING』 as Mortis weird looking stand approached the downed Marshall. He placed his hand on the door and waited, though he almost rushed in on the gunshot, but the moment had to be when Mortis's guard was the lowest.

He saw the stand go to finish off Marshall and he silently swung the door open and had his stand send a bolt of electricity flying forward. Issue was that the injured man threw himself out of the way making the bolt collide with the wall dissipating across the metal. He swore under his breath, but charged into the room anyway looking to press the advantage. He closed the distance and『RIDE THE LIGHTNING』struck down with a vicious punch, only to have Mortis's stand intercept the fist and ensnare.

John could see the damage the punch had caused since it had moved Mortis, but it had been stopped from doing worse. "Seems Leen failed to make up for his initial mistake," Mortis commented from the ground.

"What can I say," John commented as his stand struggled against Mortis's," I'm a hard motherfucker to kill."

There two stands stayed in the power struggle even as he felt deep cuts opening up on his arm, especially since Mortis was in his perfect range. In a sudden moment 『RIDE THE LIGHTNING』 shrieked and a deluge of electricity pulsed from the held arm. John winced in pain as his right arm immediately spasmed sending pain throughout, giving him a clear sign still hadn't recovered from the fight against Leen and『MR. EGO』. Mortis took the worst of it as the deluge surged through his entire body and burning his hands because of where his stand was touching.

Mortis let go and had 『CREEPING DEATH』 lash out with its spinal tail nailing his stand across the midsection, the segmented portions pinching and grabbing skin before ripping it off. He ignored the blood soaking his Hawaiian shirt and followed it up with another punch that the disorientated Mortis narrowly avoided by having his stand hit him across the room.

John saw Mortis make his retreat and quickly dashed over to Marshall, who thankful was still breathing. He opened his mouth to talk but Marshall interrupted him, " Keep going after him and watch out for any dead bodies," John glanced around the room and saw a few too many corpses for his taste," I can't walk too well anymore but the Model 27 still works."

John decided to trust him and quickly spun around to see Mortis having gotten back to his feet, and wearing a blood stained smile. "It honestly is disappointing that I couldn't have added you towards the Living Colour procedure," Mortis spoke up suddenly," Adding your power to the project would have truly changed it entirely."

"Glad to know I'm wanted," John responded as he began to feel out what limbs could handle another discharge.

"Despite the fact you have been nothing but a thorn in my side, I truly can't regret using the arrow on you," Mortis commented as his stand curled around his legs like a pet snake.

John raised an eyebrow and couldn't help but ask," What do you mean by arrow, you shot me with a golden gun."

Mortis laughed and ran his good but bloody hand through his hair," You idiots really don't get how big this world of ours is...but I suppose I can give you some is a stand user in Europe who had the interesting ability to convert varying materials into firearms, I believe she went by her stand name『LULU』. And I can't help but believe gravity directed us to be at this moment."

John exhaled as Mortis went quiet before he ran forward with his stand ready to throw down. However『CREEPING DEATH』used its superior range to rush forward and meet him early, and then narrowly dodged an electrically charged kick. However John quickly realized in this brief encounter that his stand held the greater speed, based on how many more attacks he was able to fire off compared to his opponent. Issue was that the opponent had been with a stand longer and was easily able to utilize it's limited speed to the utmost potential.

John dodged as best as he could from the claws as they swiped through the air. He wasn't incredibly effective as the claws raked across his stands torso, though his stand's durability came into play as it was just on the surface.『RIDE THE LIGHTNING』came back though and clipped 『CREEPING DEATH』sending it off balance, though no electricity was in the hit because his body couldn't handle any more voltage. It honestly made it incredibly difficult to fight without the main ability of his stand available, well he could but he wouldn't be able to move at all. Another line of scratches appeared across his arm and he grit his teeth in pain while attempting to nail the opposing stand. As his punches missed he noticed Mortis breathing a little heavier, something he should have expected given the severity of the wounds. But for him all it meant was that if he kept dragging this fight out Mortis would eventually bleed out, so now it was just a battle of endurance.

* * *

Mortis wasn't a fan of this battle of endurance, especially with how mauled his left arm was. He was sure that eventually he could win, but it was a matter of how much time he would waste. He glanced up at the clock and saw that about five minutes had passed, which meant that the patient had officially cleared the building and most likely the city. Now it was just a matter of trying to keep up with the original timetable and deal with the complications in Living Colour. There was a sudden repetition of bangs that broke through the noise in the room and very quickly he received six rounds to the chest.

That would have likely been a kill shot on any sort of normal person, but in Mortis' case the bullets impacted the metal plates he had put in with his ribs. A precaution he had taken after Lulu had shot him with some of her specialty guns. It also served as a decider for what his next move was; To make his getaway. It wasn't that he believed he was losing, but is more so the cost of victory was rising too much. He also still had some subordinates in New York that were competent enough to, at the least, delay this group, though he had thought the same of Leen and Priest.

『CREEPING DEATH』made a heavy attack against John's stand that forced him to impair his vision in order to block it. Mortis took the opportunity to spin on his feet and make his way towards the stairwell, he was able to hear the surprise behind him. He used his good arm to push the door open and began to go up the stairs as quickly as he could, and he managed to make it up to the first landing before he heard his opponent even make it to the door. His left arm hung limply by the hand rail leaving an obvious trail of blood, though he wasn't worried about being followed.

He knew that the car would at least be started, and if things went according to plan any of his remaining subordinates would be there to support. After that the plan was to head straight to the New York lab, but now they may have to make a detour in order to drag the followers somewhere else. He exhaled heavily and made it to the third landing now, when suddenly something heavy attached it to his left arm.

He glanced over and saw the aggravating blue and silver stand gripping his left arm with John hanging on behind it. 『CREEPING DEATH』exploded into reality, but Mortis was forced to pause as he felt electricity through whatever working nerves were left in the arm. Several possibilities ran through his mind, but one quickly stood out.

He stared down at John and with a cruel smile on his face. 『CREEPING DEATH』used it's scalpel-like fingers to separate the entirety of his left arm from his body at the shoulder. The blood splattered and fell all over John as gravity took it's hold pulling down the stairwell while Mortis continued towards the garage. Though he was now missing a few pounds.

* * *

Free tossed back some more painkillers as he stumbled towards the driver seat of the last transport, since the last of the mercenaries had taken off after giving him whatever morphine they had. He hauled himself into the seat and went to check his watch only to hear a door slam open, followed by the heavy shuffling of footsteps. He glanced back into the rear view mirror and his jaw nearly dropped at the sight of Mortis shuffling forward with a mutilated left arm and several other injuries. The passenger door was thrown open and he made the wise decision to keep his mouth shit and just start the car. They peeled out of the warehouse and onto the main road before Mortis spoke up," Where are the rest?"

Free weakly threw a thumb over his shoulder as he turned the car," I was able to get Leen back here in one piece, but Hetfield wasn't anywhere I was able to make it and Priest….well, he used the modifications you gave him to the fullest."

Mortis grunted and grabbed his stump before asking," How did you handle the group?"

Free glanced over before responding," I had to fight Joy and the bug guy, and it took me a bit but I figured it out eventually. Got my body all kinds of messed up when she started using fire as a weapon though."

He could almost hear the sneer on Mortis' face as the two conscious people went quiet with just the sounds of tires meeting road filling the transport. It was almost relieving for Free since it meant he didn't have to deal with his bosses wounded ego at being unable to finish off the small party. '_Pride cometh before the fall….or however that damn verse goes,' _He thought as the car finally made it onto the highway. He pressed the pedal down and felt it speed up before letting himself fall into a relaxed sort of lull.

That lull only lasted about three minutes when Mortis suddenly started chuckling. The sound made Free go wide eyed and prepare『SMOOTH CRIMINAL』for a quick escape. It turned out to be unnecessary because Mortis started talking instead of stabbing him in the throat," The way things stand we are going to be pressured while trying to complete Powerslave and keep Living Colour alive if any complications arise….I think we may need to get Jett's help."

Despite the rather numb feeling in his body, Free's hands still tightened around the steering wheel at the mention of that name. Jett was an agent of Mortis with a rather unique stand, but he also was one of the cockiest and inconsistent bastards ever. The fact they were going to have to actually use him and his crew on this level really was…."Wait, isn't Lulu in town? Can't we just pay her to deal with it?"

Free was playing the odds on both sides, but at this point he was very much trying to play more to Mortis considering the mood the man was in…..and his complete dislike of Jett's sloppiness. Another dark chuckle set him on edge," She's only here to see the results of Living Colour and Powerslave, and I don't think she's in the mood to do anything more after I threw her onto Passiones radar."

Free couldn't help but wince in sympathy for Lulu due to his bosses tendency to drag people out of the shadows and into the spotlight of crime. Hell, he had been a thief at one point before getting shipped off to Green Dolphin and then he was dragged into the world of Stands because of Mortis. It was honestly annoying that he even had to work for this man when he would much rather do things from the shadows. He snapped back to the present when Mortis spoke again," Working plan is to head through Jett's trafficking point, pick up some..._extra materials_… and take off towards the lab. That should drag the annoyances through his territory and at the best delay or kill them in time for me to complete Powerslave."

Free couldn't help but ask," What's the worst case scenario here?"

"They get delayed and kill Jett," Mortis responded with a wicked smile," And I can at least count on him to slow them down more so than Priest, Leen, and Hetfield….I can't wait to get my hands on them."

Free couldn't help but chuckle nervously at how pissed his boss was at the moment. It really made him thankful that he made himself useful regularly, though he did understand the frustration a little bit. Since in order to finance the entirety of this operation he had been forced to cut deals with other groups and even start selling drugs. This forced him to spread some of his operatives out meaning he had less of his best around him at this moment. '_Certainly doesn't matter to me,' _though Free casting a side eye,' _If you go down I can make my getaway and if you win I have a guaranteed job in a new criminal superpower….lets just hope there isn't an option c I'm not seeing.'_

"I am forced to find it odd," Suddenly spoke Mortis," That you, a former thief and all, are my most trusted subordinate….at least in the states."

Normally such a statement would have been appreciated, but in this context it made Free feel like there was a rope being pulled taught around his neck. Talking about how much more useful Jett was compared to the others he worked with and then calling him useful, really was just a threat for him to keep being useful or he would be cut out quickly. He tried not to think about what would happen to both Leen and Priest but his morbid curiosity came in and forced him to ask;" What exactly is your plan with the two in the back?"

The immediate silence put him on edge and he only grew more nervous when Mortis spoke after a minute," I'm going to put them to goooood use."

As the o stretched on Free could only feel some sort of impending dread. But from where he was there wasn't much to do. He settled on going with his go to strategy; just try to roll with the tide and come out on top. As of right now though he doesn't feel like those FBI agents have any chance to deal with Mortis, much less those under him.

* * *

'_Damn that agent really was capable of dealing with me."_

Hetfield stumbled down the back alley clutching the sloppily bandaged wound in his throat as he awkwardly made his way to the nearest medical center. Despite the wounds his thoughts were still on the fight against Marshall and how much he had underestimated the agent.

He had assumed that without his sight he would have at worst made it damn near impossible to fire accurately. Of course he had been proven wrong initially, but it had been a quick recovery and change of plans when he removed his ability to hear. Of course that hadn't worked either considering he had been shot several times and handcuffed, which thankfully had been loose enough to get a hand out of. He hadn't accounted for the floor they were on, or rather the fact that vibrations could be felt. He could only blame himself for believing that his opponent had no ability to fight without his sight or hearing. He also had discounted the power of 『FOUGHT THE LAW』 since it seemed so simplistic when Mortis explained it, all he had to do was hide behind cover which the bullets wouldn't avoid. However…..it's true strength was that it forced you to deal with both his stand ability and his marksmanship.

He snapped out his depreciating spiral of thought as he rounded the corner and was able to see the small urgent care center. He spit some blood out of his mouth and resumed his trudge through the rather empty back road. He briefly thought about whether or not he should kill the workers after he got stabilized before meeting back up with Mortis , but quickly settled on just taking his chances. Mortis had a reputation of….dealing with deserters and traitors like an arachnophobe dealt with spiders, but he was willing to take his chances at this point. Since if he made his way back he was basically asking to be 'punished' by Mortis for his failure to defeat Marshall. He also just had an instinctual feeling that this whole organization was going to get rocked, the same feeling he had when he abandoned his original group . They had been a decent sized group with a hand in the cocaine trade in Florida but Mortis had rolled in trying to get his hands on something called MK-Ultra. They thought that was some sort of new coke and killed a few of his associates, it was at that moment that he had gotten the feeling that they were fucked. Mostly because responses were hard and quick when you stepped on someone's toes and from Mortis there was nothing. He had taken a 'leave of absence' and a day later all his former friends had been completely slaughtered, and then he made his way to Mortis and joined up.

He reached the door and shoved it open getting the attention of the medical staff who were incredibly startled by his appearance. As he stumbled forward into a nurse his thoughts wandered to another fact he had somewhat ignored; Marshall also got his stand through the MK-Ultra drug. He couldn't help but smile as he was led to the back room, the fact that the person who beat also took that damn drug.

* * *

-STAND STATS- 『CREEPING DEATH』

User: Victor Mortis

Strength:A

Speed: C

Range: C

Durability: A

Precision: A

Potential: A

『CREEPING DEATH』is a semi humanoid stand that consists of a body resembling a human torso, with incredibly thin arms resembling the color of bones, and fingers ending in scalpel like claws. In place of legs the stand has a tail resembling a human spinal column. The stand has a fairly simplistic ability in general; The manipulation of Dead Organic Material. However Mortis knowledge of the human body allows it to use it's great potential. Some it's abilities include: Speeding up the decay process to form human bombs, Manipulating the cerebellum to create zombies, taking full control of corpses musculature, and more.

User History: Victor Mortis was an abnormal medical student and blooming killer on his way to graduating when a chance encounter introduced him to the vampiric Dio. Fascinated with the power of stand Mortis took the risk and was able to gain a stand, he was then able to receive an arrow with which he was supposed to raise Dio an army. Mortis however had different ideas and he instead began to test the limits of what both the arrow and a stand was capable of all with the goal of completing his ultimate projects Living Colour and Powerslave, and surpassing the man who first gave him this power. Overall he's a ruthless, pragmatic, and cunning bastard who only works with people as long as they continue to be useful and when you are not he cuts your life short or begins his experiments on you and your stand.


	15. Chapter 15

Marshall winced a little as he tested out the mobility of his leg after the doctor had patched it up with superglue and butterfly bandages. It was definitely going to be an issue moving forward but in the short term it was at the least usable. He pushed himself off the bed holding back a small cry of pain as his leg began to hold his body weight. It certainly wasn't the worst pain he had ever been in, that went to the grenade that put him in the hospital. Then of course there was MK-Ultra 908 that he had been convinced to take, based on the promise of returning him to combat, but all it had accomplished was getting him a medical discharge and a stand. He snapped out of his memories as the door clicked open and the bandaged form of Joy and the bruised frame of John walked in. His eyes followed Joy as she dropped down into a chair and winced and he turned to John when his voice broke the silence. "How are you holding up?"

Marshall put some more weight on his leg and held back a wince, "I'll be able to work with it."

Joy suddenly spoke up," Sorry to jump into this, but what the hell are we doing next?"

There was an awkward silence as Marshall just paused for what felt like a minute. John reached for the cigarettes in his shirt pocket but quickly remembered they were in a hospital and stopped halfway, and then Marshall spoke up," We are just going to make our way to the next address and prepare for combat."

Joy looked confused, but in Marshall's head it was the only viable option. Despite how it had turned out with three of them suffering a not so small amount of injuries, they had still taken down three of his subordinates. He had also had a fair chance to take down Mortis, but he had taken bad information on what Mortis's stand was capable of. So if they were to engage again, he would certainly pull out everything in order to get closer to winning. Marshall went to speak again but John cut back in," Despite how we ended up, three subordinates went down and we were able to learn and deal some damage to Mortis."

Marshall continued the idea," As he said we were able to shake things up, but also there really is no other option. We have no backup to rely on and if we take too long Mortis will accomplish the second project and disappear into one of the other branches. So the only way to really remove Mortis is to get him now, when he is fully focused on completing the project and down several subordinates."

Joy adjusted her posture before giving a slight nod as the logic set in. If they took too long and he succeeded he would just disappear into one of his organizations other branches, like drugs or small arms dealing, and probably leave the country as well. It was something Marshall couldn't accept, a complete failure of an operation. His main dilemma was how much danger he was putting Joy in, but at the same time she had agreed to put her life on the line, He took a breath to wrangle his nerves," Let's look at everything we know before making a plan."

John jumped in first," Well, it's an address in Bath. Belongs to One Medical Manufacturing, which was one of the companies that had been funneling from the group that hired me."

Marshall leaned against a wall and thought over the information, slotting it into place like a puzzle. First off the company had to have ties to Mortis in some way, which would explain some of the medical equipment, but also it told him that this wasn't a surgery location. This was based on conjecture, but the fact that John was able to recall that the company was manufacturing focused made it sound as if it was simply a holding warehouse for materials. That begged the question of why Mortis would stop there when he has a group of people on his heels, which meant it was essential. " It's likely that he has to stop there for something necessary which means that Mortis will be down in numbers, and now we know what his ability is."

Joy grunted before interjecting," That's great and all but I have questions about that Free guy."

Marshall sighed since he had figured that this was coming. Joy hated being beaten and even more so hated pity," Based on the name you gave It seems that when I got you out of Green Dolphin Street they transferred another inmate in. Free was that inmate but according to prison records he died in the swamps after an attempted prison escape.``

"I guess he didn't get eaten alive, but how the hell did he end up with Mortis? I mean that psycho seemed to only recruit failed gangsters and other violent assholes." Joy commented thinking back to Owen Spring, Priest, Leen, and even that Rob guy.

John cut in, beating Marshall to it," I think it was for a different purpose , I mean I found traces of him and Leen when I investigated the missing medical supplies but nothing really about Mortis until...well."

Marshall picked up as John trailed off," Mortis recruiting him for his connections makes the most sense, it most likely benefited the smuggling group with being able to fence goods."

John seemed to accept the info and was ready to move on, but Joy cut back in," Wait, this just hit me now, why the hell are we going for Mortis? I mean all the other parts of the organization are basically independent, so what does putting him away do?"

Marshall responded immediately," The total organization may be segmented in their operations and personnel, but the one thing keeping each division from going independent and falling apart is the total fear of Mortis."

He trailed off and Joy continued the thought," If Mortis goes they'll start cannibalizing each other."

John spoke up suddenly," I wonder if we'll be able to use that with Free, since it seems like he's playing the middle."

Marshall found some merit with the point, especially since there was little other reason for him to leave Joy and Seth alive otherwise. The pragmatic part of Marshall understood it as the best possible tactic for somebody with almost no options; Since he can't leave Mortis despite the insanity of his project he'll let them keep fighting until he can feel out the odds. The only issue with thinking about that is-"We just need to hope that no one manages to sway him over," Joy commented.

* * *

Free walked into the warehouse in a slightly good mood, mostly due to the fact that he had managed to shave two hours off the eighteen hour drive. Really just being out of an enclosed space with that psychopath put him in a better move. He snapped out of his thoughts and kicked the door shut, making sure the security lock actually clicked into place. He turned back around and quickly made his way after Mortis, who was homing in on the far corner. He was actually able to recognize some of the crates as things he had stolen, mostly firearms or drugs but a few pieces of art as well.

He stopped walking as Mortis dropped to his knees, quickly summoned his stand and had it rip apart the vent. Free was confused as Mortis reached his arm into the vent, but it quickly alleviated as a golden gun came out. He winced slightly as phantom pain raced through his chest, a grim memory of his induction into this mess. He snapped out of it when Mortis suddenly shot up holding the gun with an odd look in his eyes. He expected his boss to say something, but Mortis suddenly spun around and pointed the gun directly at him.『SMOOTH CRIMINAL』exploded to life and Free was moving almost immediately, but Mortis just chuckled before commenting, "It's like it wants to shoot you….interesting."

『SMOOTH CRIMINAL』disappeared as Mortis tucked into his waistband and Free responded dumbly," What?"

Mortis ignored the question and walked past him into the maze of crates and medical equipment snapping him out of his 'shock'. Free quickly caught up with a few long strides and began to glance around the warehouse. He actually was able to recognize a few of the crates as things that he had stolen, most of them coming from jobs he had done with what they called a narcotics division. He felt a little annoyance overcome him at the mere thought of those morons but he squashed it as Mortis paused to examine one of the stacks. Mortis cast him a side eye before asking, "Free, what exactly do you know about the gun?"

"It's what allows you to make stands," Free knew it was an awful answer, but that was all he really knew about it. Most of what he did was just hunt down equipment and valuable things that the organization could use, so he never really paid attention to what Mortis did. Hell, all he actually knew about what Mortis current goal was that it involved creating artificial stands, which even he could tell was slightly insane but he had few options. It was really either work with Mortis and his massive criminal empire, or try to outrun said empire that he didn't like his odds against. In fact, those FBI schmucks were lucky that they were so spread out compared to normal, mostly due to a small group reeking destruction in Mexico.

Mortis chuckled before turning to another pile of items," In 1978 there was an official report detailing a meteorite with a virus that seemed to only exist to kill humans, however a look into history...well mythology rather, reveals the use of these things to achieve the power of the gods-"

Free warily followed Mortis as he continued to speak-no continued to rant about the mystic history of the weapon. He zoned out a little bit for the history lesson and a worrying amount of fantasizing over somebody whose name he never said, but he came back into it when Mortis suddenly brought up how the arrow...gun….fuck it, gun operated;"-also depends on the will of the person, and it seemingly attracts to those with strong wills almost bending gravity to make these events happen."

Free raised an eyebrow at the concept but just sort of accepted it, something he had been doing often since he had gotten a stand. Hell, Mortis could manipulate corpses somehow. It was honestly just easier to accept whatever was happening and just find a way to deal with it.

Mortis suddenly stopped and began to examine one of the piles, before gesturing for Free to clear it off. He obliged and started before asking," What exactly is this, because all you said was that it was something we had to get."

Mortis chuckled as Free struggled with one of the smaller crates," It's called MK-Ultra 908 and it was a failed effort to make a powerful mind altering drug."

He moved the last of the things on top and Mortis walked over to open it, revealing over a hundred vials. "All the drug seemed to do was cause the taker to suffer intense pain, hallucinations, hot flashes, vomiting, and muscular dystrophy leading to a fairly high mortality rate." Mortis picked one up and held it to his eye," However, due to the use of a specific virus….thirty-nine percent in the initial testing survived and then manifested a stand."

Free couldn't help but stare wide eyed at the vials, while his mind ran through the possibilities. Having control over the drug brought forward new possibilities in regards to recruiting new stand users. Especially since this lead to a more controlled application and delivery as well as being significantly easier to control. He grabbed a vial and felt the weight while a single thought ran through his head, '_Consider me swayed.'_

* * *

Mortis turned away from Free and let out a small sigh. It hadn't been his first plan to show Free the MK-Ultra, but he was in a position where he needed full dedication. He found it rather unfortunate that his most loyal members were preoccupied with other tasks, but it was the only way to ensure his criminal enterprise didn't fall apart. He did take solace in the fact that Free was still unaware of some of the other facts about the drug; They had managed to raise the success rate to forty-five but there were persisting health issues. But in the scheme of things it was still annoying to reveal his major bargaining chip.

The sound of the door unlocking caught both their attention, but Mortis made sure that Free placed the vial he had been examining back into the crate before turning to face. He wasn't greeted with anything but the grating sound of a jaunty whistle, which gave him all the information he actually needed. A few seconds of annoyed silence between Free and himself later and around a corner came Jet.

Mortis had to hold back a growl of annoyance as he took in the wrinkled and unkempt police uniform, though he didn't know what he expected. Jet was a member of the narcotics group but proved himself problematic by killing several hostages because 'they pissed him off' among multiple other incidents. The only reason Mortis hadn't killed him in a fit of rage was because Jet had a useful stand and was still somewhat useful as a guard dog. Mortis leveled a glare as Jet spoke up," Well, if it isn't the boss and the great left hand. What brings you to my neck of the woods"

Mortis reached into his coat and pulled out a file giving the statistics of both Marshall and the girl, and then his conjectures on the large man and the other one. " Two simple jobs, Idris will be showing up in five minutes and you need to make sure that the MK-Ultra transfers with no issues-"

"Sounds easy enough to handle," Jet cut in while grabbing the folder.

"Second I need you to...deal with a group that's in pursuit of us. The folder contains some observations and descriptions of their abilities," Mortis continued after the interruption.

Jet grabbed the folder and looked at it disinterestedly before asking," So where exactly are you guys heading?"

"Somewhere I'm not willing to tell you," responded Mortis smoothly.

Jet let out a childish sigh," You can't let me have any fun can you?"

Suddenly his stand appeared; a humanoid figure colored blue and gray with what resembled sunglasses covering the eyes. Though the most interesting part was the x's that covered the 'mouth' and skin. Mortis shook his head and just walked right past him towards the door with Free following right behind. Mortis felt the stand watching him as he exited, but he wasn't too worried. Jet's stand worked best when you didn't know how it worked and were susceptible to its ability, but since Mortis knew that and 『CREEPING DEATH』could easily overpower it…..He knew he was safe.

Free and he exited the building and made it back to the truck before Free spoke," So why the hell are we trusting him, and not getting anyone else?"

Mortis wondered that a little himself, but really couldn't recall any operatives without weakening any of the other groups. The narcotics group was very understaffed, smuggling was dealing with a yakuza group in Japan, and pulling Idris away from the enforcement group crippled their ability to efficiently handle some of the hits they received. Truthfully he had worked himself into this corner, but he still had useful pawns in Free, Valentino if he wakes up, and maybe he could contract with Lulu for enough money if things got desperate. The only benefit to having Jet deal with it was that his back was 'against the wall'…" Jet is an awful operative, but at the least he is an excellent guard dog. Especially with his ideal 'cushy life' on the line."

That was really why Mortis despised Jet the most, aside from his utter inability to work within a larger group; His complete lack of motivation. Jet was content with just having a secure and wealthy style of living. He had no drive or incentive to better his station or even better the organization and that lead to his impulsive decisions, since they didn't impact his station. At the least everybody that worked under him wanted more, which meant they indirectly bettered the organization with their drive. Even Free, despite playing both sides, was responsible for an increase in their overall control because he was able to get into places and steal important documents and goods. All Jet ever did was ensure that the pace remained the same and that really grated Mortis the wrong way, since he constantly kept going forward.

He snapped out of his thoughts when the truck started up and they pulled into the road, heading off towards the final part of his life's work.

* * *

Joy jogged off the tarmac wincing at the soreness in her body. They had decided to charter a plane in order to make up the time….again. Though she really couldn't focus on the moment at hand, mostly since her mind kept going back to the beginning. That damn smirk was burnt into her mind along with the shine coming off that damn gun. It honestly was still infuriating to this day that she couldn't do anything. She had always been bigger and taller than most kids her age and tended to make use of her size to both get what she wanted and to be useful. Having all that power ripped out from under her made her feel very small and useless, kind of how she was feeling right now.

She couldn't help but flash back to the most recent fight with Free and how thoroughly she had been dominated. She had managed to get a few shots in with her new style of chain, but in the end he was able to endure it. It really made her wonder if this was the end of her stand's potential, but some part of her felt like she was standing on the edge of something. It was like when she first got her stand and thought that 『ALICE IN CHAINS』was only able to make chains out of metal, but then she found she could use other solids instead. With the recent development of being able to use things like water and air, it really felt like she still had room to push her stand farther. She rolled her shoulders and winced a little as her birthmark burned, something it had only started doing it in 1988. It was a curious little issue but it wasn't something she was too worried about…since there were more pressing issues. She snapped out of her musings when Seth cut in," So I need to ask, What exactly are we expecting going forward? I mean the kid, Leen, and whoever Marshall faced were taken down?"

Joy had to hold back a snide comment about 'that fucker Free', mostly to save her own ego, and listened to Marshall," Realistically we are probably going to have to deal with some of the narcotics group...though that is all conjecture since those are the members we know the least about. But the enforcement group is always busy and we have confirmed intel that the smuggling group is overseas."

Joy vaguely recognized the groups listed from reading one of Marshall's' heavily detailed packets that she had skimmed, but even then she never really thought about how large the criminal empire was. She had only really focused on Mortis himself and let the rest stay to the side, but it did make sense given how much money and sway Mortis seemed to have. An awful part of her respected the ability of Mortis to build this American crime empire, but that was quickly squashed down by the human side of her. Suddenly John cut in getting her attention," Is it possible he could have overseas help or something?"

It was something Joy hadn't considered, but given what she knew of Mortis it was impossible. Marshall echoed her thought process," Mortis is too paranoid of somebody outside his control learning his process. It's also the reason why he only informs few of his operatives of where the other groups are operating."

"Like that kid with the car and the convoy," Seth answered."

Joy cut back in," Yeah it's why he actually talked with me instead of immediately attacking me."

She thought back to that moment and for some reason his name jumped back into her head; Zieger. She honestly felt bad for him in a way since Marshall had gotten a file on him from a field office. She had read over it and learned that he had a history of street racing and some illegal modifications. She guessed he got into stealing cars and had stolen the wrong one and gotten Mortis eye, which now meant that he had a death sentence. She wondered if maybe she could get him a more lenient sentence and maybe parole because it didn't seem like he killed anybody or handled anything else really bad for Mortis. She figured part of it was seeing somebody who had been dragged into this like her, but maybe she could offer him a hand to get out of it, to redeem himself.

* * *

Rob Zieger cracked his neck as his handcuffs clinked and jangled in the back of the transfer bus. This was his second transfer today on the orders

of the FBI Special Circumstances Unit, which he didn't know even existed until an agent showed up and told him what was happening. He supposed he shouldn't be surprised that there was an FBI group dedicated to investigating stand based crime or what not, but it really took him for a loop when the agent brought up his stand. He leaned back against the wall of the transport and sighed, '_Not sure if it's going to do anything when Mortis guns it for me.'_

He honestly wasn't sure what was worse; the constant threat on his life from Mortis or the fact that he was looking at life in prison and because of his association with Mortis….which was going to be a short life. Personally he thought it was bullshit because he wasn't even aware of half of what Mortis was doing. Hell, when the agent brought up some sort of Project Living Colour he had thought they were talking about some new movie or something. He opened his eyes and looked towards the front and felt a spark of joy as the divider between the front and the back was open. He glanced around and moved forward when he realized that nobody else had been loaded in the back. '_Like hell I'm going down without a fight."_

He squeezed his arms through the divider before working his shoulders through. He heard voices approaching and pushed a little harder getting both hands around the steering wheel. The familiar transformation started as Rob took the shifting to get his entire body into the driver seat. He immediately slammed his foot down and took off as the voices in the background screamed in surprise. As he floored it he couldn't help but reflect on the stupid crash tht got him here. He had been trying to drift around a corner but he had lost it and slid into a white van that happened to be owned by Mortis. That psycho had been pissed and had shot him with that damn golden pistol, but he had lived somehow and then found himself employed by a complete psychopath with a gun to his head. Now though his only option was to run and hope that Mortis was taken down. He somewhat hoped that girl he had encountered was able to get it done...but he wasn't going to get his hopes up.

* * *

-STAND STATS- 『?』

User: Jason Jet

Strength:C

Speed: C

Range: D

Durability: A

Precision: B

Potential: A

『?』is a humanoid stand that consists of a human body. The torso resembles a ballistic vest colored a deep navy blue that flows into a slightly lighter calf area. The arms, face, and leg from the knee down are all colored metallic gray. Where the mouth should be there are a series of x's that pattern along the grey colored parts. For its ability…..to be determined

User History: Jason Jet was a street punk who jumped ship on his original gang to join up with the narcotics group. There he was a mid level member who did half of his job, but he fell out of favor when the narcotics group started to expand. Mostly due to his insistence on keeping the group small in order to keep his life simple and easy, something that went against the rest of the members. He then ruined three simple operations by acting out without actually thinking, and nearly got himself almost killed by Mortis before he was put on permanent guard duty in order to keep the stands ability for interrogations.


	16. Chapter 16

Joy peered out the window as the car finally rolled into Bath, well finally was overstating the fifteen minute drive. It was honestly rather quaint and peaceful which just felt alien given the circumstances. This was not the place she had envisioned the final showdown with Mortis and his damn lackeys to go. She felt a slight burning pain on the back of her shoulder but she ignored it, trying to get her to focus on the other weird issue she had been dealing with.『ALICE IN CHAINS』had still been feeling off, it felt like….an unsatisfying meal or something. It just seemed like it wanted her to put something together and-well she didn't know. She snapped back into the moment when she heard Marshalls startled yell, "What are you doing!?"

She glanced up and noticed that John was halfway out the door of the moving car as he called back," I remember that damn warehouse."

He made it out while keeping both of his feet under him, and Joy couldn't help but go wide eyed as he booked it across a lane of traffic towards a barbed wire fence. She could almost see the annoyance on Marshall's body as he went to pull over into a gravel parking lot. She clambered out of the car and quickly looked around, feeling a degree of nervousness at the fact they were basically standing in enemy territory. The three of them gathered up in a makeshift huddle as Seth spoke up first," So what exactly is the plan?"

Marshall responded almost instantly" We know the location of the warehouse and we can work backward from there quickly, but the biggest issue is that we can't afford to get caught off guard."

Joy found herself agreeing, mostly on account of the dull pain still throbbing throughout her body. A quick glance at Seth gave her the idea that he was very much in agreement. She turned her focus back to Marshall as he began to walk off towards the warehouse, taking care to keep some distance from the crowds. She took up last position in their little brigade and glanced around the city before staring up into the relatively cloudless sky. She shifted her gaze back down and blinked as her vision swam with black spots, despite that she picked out an interesting building. Well what was interesting was the flashing coming from the third story window, really made her won-

She heard Marshall yell and basically on instinct moved into a crowd of people as the all to familiar sound of a sniper sounded off. She didn't hear the bullet hit anything but that might have had to do with the now screaming crowd. She tried to block the noise out while searching for Marshall, which he wasn't really hard to find considering he dressed like you assumed a federal agent would. She saw him gesture down the alley he had ducked into before turning and moving forward. She exhaled and summoned 『ALICE IN CHAINS』before taking off across the gap between her and the alley, thankfully no shot was fired.

She dashed down the alley keeping just enough sight of Marshall to know where he was going. She cut around the corner and kept to the wall as she ran forward, but a sudden series of cries caught her attention. She halted and glanced from her cover onto another small parking lot to see a young woman laying on the ground. She wanted to keep running after Marshall, but some part of her wanted to go help the person. She heard footsteps behind her and just gestured in the direction Marshall went before venturing out to save the person. She could understand why Marshall wouldn't go rescue her, the risk of it being a trap, but her stand had a solid work around. She cut to the cover provided by a fairly low car and made a fairly long chain before snaking it forward across the ground and wrapping it around the person's leg. She exhaled and slowly went to pull….only for nothing to happen.

Joy wouldn't brag but she was definitely stronger than the average person, so the fact that she couldn't drag somebody who weighed like a hundred and fifteen pounds was infuriating. She had her stand grab the chain and assist her in the pull but still there was no movement. A glance up revealed that the ground itself seemed to have wrinkled up, like a carpet scrunched against the wall. The girl turned over and smiled darkly as the shadow of a figure seemed to float over her. Joy went to drop the chain when a pain suddenly exploded in the back of her head, accompanied by the warm flow of blood spilling down her neck. She held onto consciousness though, and went to spin around. She caught sight of a pair of blue pants and black shoes before something hit her head again. Her vision tilted but she held onto consciousness and went to launch an attack with her stand, but a sudden prick on her back accompanied by a surge of electricity slowed her down. Her muscles twitched for a second but she fought through and launched the attack a second late. The fist impacted the ground cracking it, but it was too little late as another blow to the back of her head finally took her out of commission. This hit carrying a completely different feel then the two previous finally made her vision go dark.

* * *

Valentino grimaced as the shot connected with nothing but concrete, though he knew it wasn't expected that he would actually make it. Part of it was his pride as a hitman, but the other part was definitely the fact that it wasn't a hard kill for any trained hitman to make. It was not a good mark for his future success if he couldn't make that shot, though his stand might make up for that. It was honestly an incredibly exciting experience to have this power at his fingertips, though he noticed an odd difference compared to what that other guy dealt with . It was also weird for the fact that he couldn't really make out other stands, which was something that was weird apparently. To him Mortis's stand appeared as sort of vaguely humanoid green smoke, though apparently this was a side effect some of the other users of the drug had….didn't make him less nervous about that.

He heard the cries of the panicked public begin to subside as actual police sirens came closer, and with a smirk he got the rifle stowed away before quickly getting to the stairs. This really wasn't his favorite way to carry out a hit, normally he preferred to get the target alone and kill them where he could control the scenario. Beggars can't be choosers though and Mortis wanted an incredibly obvious distraction to keep the FBI away from some warehouse. He had done his part so now the ball was with the Jett siblings to keep the rest busy. As he quickly cut down the stairs he couldn't help but regret his decision in life, specifically to become a hitman not the criminal activity. It wasn't so much the constant killing of people, though that did wear on him a bit, but it was the fact he was constantly the villain…'_and that's enough philosophy.' _

He made his way down the ground level and steadily opened the door before cutting into the open air of the back alleys. He winced a little and immediately reached for the bottle of pills he had in his coat, really the only thing that was keeping him up at this moment. When he had woken up it had hurt to breathe, much less move, but Mortis had dosed him up with a load of painkillers in order to get him semi functional. Realistically though, even with his painkillers, he would only be able to function for an hour, or less if he had to push it. This was also one of his issues with this current situation...that the damned half-dead man was having to help save the damn organization. He slid a handful of the pills into his mouth and swallowed them, grimacing at the taste while rounding a corner. He glanced forward and nearly stopped dead in his tracks as he saw one of the faces he had been briefed on. He held his face in what he hoped was a general visage of an average person and altered his body posture slightly. As he got closer he felt his stand begin to hum, or rather writhe under his skin as emotions flooding his head. Determination. Hardy. Focused. It was an awkward rush of things but he held it under wraps and kept walking. He passed by but instead of feeling relief like he normally would, an insignificant little detail appeared in his head; The man was a long term marksman. The quick connection of that fact coupled with the fact he was carrying a modified marksman case forced his instincts to scream at him to get into cover.

He followed his instincts cry, and dove behind a bin feeling a small tearing pain across his chest, a pretty good signal that some of the stitches gave. He pulled out his pistol and braced as he heard a similar series of noises coming from the other side of the alley. '_Jett you absolute failure…"_

* * *

John placed his hand on the security pad and had『RIDE THE LIGHTNING』short it out with a blast of electricity , it didn't actually unlock it but it did make it so he could muscle the gate open. That process was not as simple as it seemed to be, but only a minute later he squeezed through the gap. He jogged up to the building before working his way around the outside trying to find a way to sneak in. He vaguely remembered this warehouse as one that had been mentioned in some of the papers he had found. The fact that it was mentioned in those papers lead him to believe that it had to be somewhat important, though he really had no idea what would be in here. He continued his path around the building until he noticed a relatively small box truck pulled up next to an open side door.

He crept up the open door and peered inside where he was able to see stack after stack of various crates and goods. He assumed most of it had some major purpose to Mortis or some other part of the organization. The sound of footsteps sounding off throughout the building basically confirmed that idea, but it made him wonder what the person was looking for. John hesitated for a moment before sneaking his way inside, trying to find whatever Mortis felt was important enough to try and remove it.

He began to walk between the stacks keeping an ear on the footsteps. As he threw his gaze over the area he found a small broken crate that was leaking jewelry on to the floor. He reached down and picked up one of the chain necklaces before noticing the uncut diamonds buried deeper in the crate. It was somehow both surprising and expected at the same time, but he was forced to start moving again as the footsteps started to sound closer. He quickly shuffled his way around some of the piles and found himself staring at a few military crates. He scanned the listed cargo and found ballistic jackets, ammunition, and some radio equipment. Honestly it really seemed like this was just a storage place for their stolen goods until they were needed, judging by the crate he found that was full of small arms. He suddenly froze when the footsteps sounded off very close to him, he hadn't been paying attention given his interest in what some of the crates had. He quickly turned and as quietly as possible cut his way deeper into the piles of items. He cut his way through taking note of some of the items he was noticing; paintings, antiques, and even some fashion clothes. It was all just high value stuff that seemed to have been grabbed and accumulated as sort of a backup vault of sorts. He cut his thought short and crouched behind a pile and peered around it before noticing another military crate in front of him. He tried to take a second to examine it, but the footsteps sounded off again much closer. He kept low and maneuvered deeper into the piles, trying to keep his steps silent. Thankfully despite his size he was fairly used to sneaking around, though that was normally done on carpet or outside.

He worked his feet over each other with measured steps for a bit before settling down into a crouch again. He kept an ear open but was only really to make out vague grumbles and exclamations but what stood out was that the footsteps ended. That meant that whatever that truck was here for was in that area, but he couldn't place what it would be. He focused on what he had seen; Military crate, cloth covered crate, few paintings, and some other miscellaneous antiques. He wanted to guess it was the military crate, but there wasn't really any real evidence to say why it was that crate over the others. He remembered that it had some unique markings compared to the other crates, mostly some faded yellow markings that dotted the upper half. It was all just baseless guessing but he had a bit of a feeling that it was that crate.

He shifted again but this time started to move forward trying to get a look at the crate and whoever was dealing with it. Though he didn't really know what his plan was after finding out who was there, since he knew absolutely nothing of anybody outside of the people that kidnapped him. Honestly his best bet was to get back to Marshall and tell him, hoping that the description matched up with someone he knew.

He made his way around looking up through a somewhat narrow gap at the man who was unburying the army crate. He could tell the man was incredibly annoyed based on his body language...and the swears echoing throughout the area. He pivoted a little on his back foot in order to open the view up and a loud squeak sounded off. He glanced down quickly and saw a small puddle of water all around his one foot. He glanced up quickly and saw the man spinning around with his stand already out and at the ready.

* * *

Seth glanced out from his alley as the police officer and some girl dragged Joy into some rundown security shack. If the situation wasn't already completely awful he would find it funny how it took two people to carry a basically eighteen year old girl. He exhaled and began to quickly run through the current situation; Marshall had gone ahead to where the sniper had been perched, John was by the warehouse, and Joy was captured. That left him with two stand users he knew absolutely nothing about, and it definitely didn't help that he had yet to win a fight without serious injury.

It put him in a difficult spot when it came to figuring out the best way to handle this damn situation. He could go try to find and help either Marshall or John, but at the same time there was no guarantee that they were nowhere close to where he last saw them. So based on the odds his best option was to deal with it on his own, which posed an even bigger set of challenges. Namely how to go about this. He could just make Joy go berzerk and hope for the best, but his incredibly small moral compass and survival instinct put that idea to rest. There were other smaller plans that quickly ran through his head, but each either was a terrible idea in terms of keeping Joy alive or required an insane amount of luck. One idea though was still technically viable, though he wanted to do a bit of setup before even attempting it. Mostly because he was sick of getting the absolute shit kicked out of him and he wasn't sure that his bones could endure many more meetings with physically orientated stands.

He took a fairly deep breath before jogging off to find a fairly empty parking lot, or really any wide area with some sort of cover. In part because he was sick of trying to get his flying stand to handle tight quarters or try to go toe toe with humanoid stands. As he made his way around he couldn't help but feel some sort of perverse pleasure at the idea of taking somebody out after not doing well in any of his fights. He guessed that part of it was his general superiority complex and desire for complete control, but the other part was the idea that these were the people that had put him through hell and back.

A slight buzzing filled his head as he jogged down the road, it really seemed like 『BALLROOM BLITZ』 agreed with his sentiment.

* * *

Jett deposited the unconscious girl onto the floor and quickly bound her hands with some handcuffs. She had come damn close to taking him out with her stand and he didn't want her hands to have any chance to get a go at him. He plopped back into the completely mediocre office chair as his sister took a seat on top of a desk. She spoke up first to break the silence, "How they hell did she take that many hits to the head?"

He shrugged and spun his baton around," Some people got some crazy blood in their system."

She seemed to accept that and just went back to being quiet, at least for a solid thirty seconds before she spoke up again. "Aren't you supposed to be with Idris right now?"

Jett just rolled his eyes," I was actually supposed to be with him before this whole op-eration went off, but I decided to get some food instead."

His sister just smirked at his antics before responding," Well it wasn't like anything would really slow him down, all he has to do is find the crates, load it up, and be off."

He fully agreed with her, there really was no reason for him to interact with those nutjobs from the armed division. Or as he liked to call it Killers Paradise. They were a bunch of ex-cons, former hitmen, and general psycho's that were very good at making people not breathe. They tended to get annoyed with him and he didn't want to ruin his mood by interacting with those people. Hell, talking with Mortis had ruined his mood to the point where he wasn't able to enjoy his speciality brandy later.

He left his musings as the girl on the floor began to wake up, he thinks the briefing folder he was given said her name was Joy. That was one of the files he actually read, the other being on the FBI agent Marshall something or other. 『OUTLANDOS D'AMOUR』 came into existence and reached down lightly touching the back of her neck and placing an oddly colored X onto her skin. It was time to do the thing he was good at, though he would much rather be back in his apartment watching the baseball game of the night. The girl started to wake up a bit more and he stood up before hauling her up into a sitting position.

He plopped back down into his chair and decided to let the girl come to on her own, no real rush to wake her up. So all he could do was wait for when the girl fully came to. Then he would be able to get the info easier, mostly since his stands stupid ability only worked when the person could actually understand the question. It also wasn't like anybody else needed their help at this moment; Idris should be gone from his life and the italian should be handling the other three from the second sniper perch. It was such a simple plan that everything should be going fine.

* * *

Idris was incredibly pissed, no, he was beyond pissed into murderous rage. It should have taken him less than five minutes to pull up, load the shitty van, and be off to Florida to drop it off. But fucking Jett had not shown up making it so that he to hunt his way through the very full warehouse looking for the two obscure military crates with the MK-Ultra. That itself was annoying but not unexpected, what sent him over was the fact that there was an intruder. And furthermore the intruder had a stand, based on electricity that had been sent flying at him. In all it was a list of things that he shouldn't have had to deal with and definitely didn't not want anything to do with.

He peered around one of the piles and caught sight of the intruder dashing deeper into the warehouse. It was kinda funny to him, that he wasn't actually mad at the man he was chasing into the warehouse. He was able to understand that the intruder had a job to do and he couldn't fault him for that, but he was definitely livid at Jett for making this process take forever. He snapped out of his thoughts as he used his stand to propel him backwards out of the way of a targeted electrical blast.

He was also annoyed that he didn't have his pistol on him, mostly because he expected to be dealing with absolutely nothing. It wasn't like when he was on a job dealing with constant threats and law enforcement, he was driving a freaking truck to pickup drugs. Which, while a felony, was significantly more mundane then his general run of murders and fights with gangs. In fact, as a whole he was regretting this assignment in a nutshell. It really made him wish that they could go on their own and just be done with Mortis, but their 'head' was an idiot with some fanatical allegiance to Mortis and his motivations. Really made him wonder how Mortis won these people over considering every time he met the man he just got annoyed. Really everything about the 'boss' annoyed him. The way he threw around his men without actually telling them any sort of plan, even if it was a lie he still would like to know why he was taking out these people. It led to the narcotics and armed divisions running into each other on missions that could be accomplished so much easier when working together. He could understand paranoia, hell he lived every day thinking everybody could kill him, but you needed to let your goddamn associates know what the fuck the plan was. He snapped out of his internal rant about Mortis and shouldered one of the piles to his immediate left over, causing the next three to fall over. It conveniently blocked off the path the intruder was trying to take forcing him to double back deeper into the warehouse. Idris kept his stand tucked away for the moment, mostly since the intruder hadn't pulled theirs out. It wasn't a sense of honor or anything but with some stands he had seen there were structural things that seemed to give away abilities or purposes. He wasn't really sure his stand had any features like that but he was trying to account for his familiarity bias.

He rounded one of the piles and heard the squeaking of a shoe dead ahead. He had his stand at the ready and kept barreling down towards the noise, really just trying to get this job done.

* * *

-STAND STATS- 『OUTLANDOS D'AMOUR』

User: Jason Jet

Strength: C

Speed: C

Range: D

Durability: A

Precision: B

Potential: A

『OUTLANDOS D'AMOUR』is a humanoid stand that consists of a human body. The torso resembles a ballistic vest colored a deep navy blue that flows into a slightly lighter calf area. The arms, face, and leg from the knee down are all colored metallic gray. Where the mouth should be there are a series of x's that pattern along the grey colored parts. It's ability is that when it makes contact with a person it is able to place an "X" on their body. Then the user is able to ask a question and if the question isn't answered with the truth, as the affected person understands, damage is dealt. After lying the "X" moves around the body to a different part, and then that will be the next part. The subject can refuse to answer the question and not suffer the damage, but giving a half truth will still trigger the damage. However, it is all based how the subject interprets the information.

User History: Jason Jett was a street punk who jumped ship on his original gang to join up with the narcotics group. There he was a mid level member who did half of his job, but he fell out of favor when the narcotics group started to expand . He ruined three simple operations by acting out without actually thinking, and got himself almost killed before Mortis put him on guard in order to keep the stands ability in his pocket for interrogations.


	17. Chapter 17

John channeled electricity through his arm, getting sparks dancing across and his skin, and let loose a bolt of electricity, trying to nail his opponent. The electricity going wide and colliding with one of the piles, sending it all over the ground. Besides his accuracy, it also didn't help that he had no idea if his assailant had a gun or not, which meant it was safer to err on the side of caution. He kept his weaving up as he worked towards the open door. He wasn't against fighting whoever this was, but this entire scenario was working against him. It also wasn't great that he had no idea who he was fighting. With Leen it had been different, because he had a vague memory of him. He had absolutely zero concept of what this guy was capable of.

The electricity coursed through his other arm as he loosed another bolt in the direction of the heavier footsteps behind him. No cry of pain followed, so he assumed it sent wide again. He was decently close to the open door, about thirty feet. His feet pounded forward but all the momentum he had suddenly disappeared as something heavy wrapped around his foot. He hit the floor hard with his shoulder, but he recovered quickly enough to see an odd 'hand' disappear into the concrete floor. All he could do was hiss, "What the hell…"

He scrambled to his feet and spun around right as his chaser caught up to him. They both stared at each other for a second, which let Marshall figure out that this guy didn't have a gun. But he did have a stand and the bigger issue was that he had little to no idea what his stand could do. His musing was cut short when the other man spoke up," Why exactly are you here?"

John didn't like the look he was getting, the lack of any real emotion other than pure annoyance and disdain. However, he couldn't keep his mouth shut," Just some sightseeing. How about you?"

A chuckle was the immediate response but after a second he actually spoke," Well haven't heard that one before, but I don't think my boss wants you alive."

"You mean Mortis don't you," It was a dumb attempt to fish for information , but his instinct wanted him to do it anyway.

There was a visible scowl on the other guy's face, "He's my bosses boss."

So he didn't like Mortis….but that wasn't useful in the slightest because this guy obviously wasn't going to betray whoever his boss was. His thoughts were interrupted suddenly," How about we drop the act of being intelligent and just get straight to killing each other."

John wasn't sure if he should be pissed at the insult to his intelligence, but some part of him was thankful for the straightforward nature. People like Leen with waxing speeches and an ego the size of everest pissed him off more, so it was a little refreshing.

* * *

Marshall fired and listened as the bullet collided with what sounded like wood. He adjusted his grip and began to move forward in a low crouch, though his thoughts drifted a little. It had been a little surprising to see the Italian hitman, but even more so that it had taken Marshall a second to recognize him. It had been subtle but the arch of his nose and pronouncement of his cheek bones had been slightly altered. The file that Marshall had read before starting this assignment had described Valentino as somebody who was unconcerned with his face being known, so it was odd that he would have his face altered.

He pushed his curiosity out the way as he nudged the door open farther with his foot and peered inside. A series of cubicles stretched out in front of him forcing him to pause and run through all the information. Valentino realistically didn't know how his stand fully worked so he could take advantage of 『FOUGHT THE LAW』in order to both figure out where Valentino is and possibly secure a disabling shot. At the same time there was the chance that the bullets would collide with something that would stop them so all the shots would do was give away his location while revealing Valentino's. Marshall snapped out of his second of deliberation and raised the pistol up into the room before firing two shots into the room. He immediately followed them into the room making sure he was able to follow their arc until they disappeared over the cubicle wall he turned into cover. '_Though calling it cover is being far too nice.'_

The sound of metal colliding with metal broke up his thoughts and gave him a solid idea of where Valentino was. He began to creep towards the noise, taking care to keep his footsteps quiet. Three steps later three gunshots sounded back with two bullets tearing through the cubicle wall he was pressed against. They weren't close enough to be an immediate threat, but they were far too close for him to stay were he was.

Marshall dove back along the wall he was using and hit the ground, just as a bullet ripped through the approximate area his shoulder had been. He stayed down for a second as quiet resumed, though that also meant the intense pain from his leg and ribs had to be kept in. It seemed that neither was happy with the sudden dive he had made, but there were more pressing concerns. Namely of how Valentino had picked his location out to fire at. It hadn't been random chance since the first two had been used to figure out where he wasn't and the third was meant to deal damage. There were too many possible routes that Marshall could have taken so an accurate prediction was very unlikely, so it made Marshall wonder how exactly he made those shots.

* * *

Valentino kept his breath quiet as he focused on the tentacles, trying to narrow down where the writing was most concentrated. He was somewhat confused at the change in color, from green to a navy blue, but the sudden influx of cool and calculated thoughts in his head forced it away. The new thought process had also helped him figure out that his stand seemed to gesture vaguely in the direction of strong emotions. That conclusion was mostly based on how they seemed to want to attack Mortis whenever he was nearby, but it was a decent one. He finally figured out where most of the writhing was concentrated, a surprisingly annoying task, and he began to take aim.

Normally he would just line up and fire but he found himself adjusting his aim ever so slightly. He questioned himself a little, but found his mind rationalizing the change based on what he had briefly observed about Marshall. He also knew that his shot would be better if he moved out from behind the filing cabinet that had become his cover, but there was little to no chance that he would give that up.

The tentacles shifted suddenly messing up his lined up shot as he had to try to determine where the writhing was most concentrated again. There might be a better method but he had yet to figure it out, but he hoped to figure it out soon because there was no way he would be able to beat Marshall as injured as he was now.

Marshall ignored his leg as he stayed low and kept moving. Somehow Valentino had a way to figure out where Marshall was, but it was at least a little inaccurate based on the two feeling shots. His best bet was to keep on the move so the shots had a better chance of missing since the aim had to keep adjusting. It also helped that wasn't something he had to worry about with his stand active.

He suddenly sprung to a full stand and squeezed off the remaining bullets in the pistol, actually aiming in the direction of the file cabinet with two bullet holes in it. He ignored the pain in his leg and quickly returned to the semi crouch and set about reloading while keeping an ear out. One bullet hit what sounded like a computer but an exclamation of pain told him that the second found it's target.

He ducked his head and quickly moved again as four bullets sounded off and tore through the spot where he had been. He slammed the chamber closed and exploded back to his feet and squeezed off five quick shots, betting on the fact that Valentino would move from the compromised cover.

The bet paid off and he caught Valentino in the open, with a strange array of navy blue tentacles splayed from his body. The bullets all arced forward but Marshall didn't follow them, instead he dropped back down and got moving. The best case scenario Valentino went down, worst case….nothing happened and he was in cover.

* * *

Valentino grit his teeth as Marshall fired at him, he had fallen right into the damn trap. As the bullets homed in he frantically tried to wrangle his tentacles into some sort of defense. Thankfully the appendages responded and formed some sort of net across his body stopping four of the six bullets. The other two weren't stopped by the net resulting in a grazed left arm and hit left shoulder. That meant he had one leg that had been grazed, a hurt left arm, and an impaired left shoulder.

He ducked behind one of the cubicle walls and caught his breath. He was silently evaluating his options when he realized that his shirt was growing damp. The burst of movement had torn up his stitches meaning that this fight now had a damn timer in addition to basically being to the death. He grit his teeth and glanced at the tentacles, he had somewhat figured out how to work with the writhing but all that did was tell him where Marshall generally was. Realistically, even if he finished Marshall it wasn't going to end well because Mortis wasn't available to fix his goddamn chest. The other issue was that the only way out was guarded by Marshall….Well time to go.

Valentino exploded to his feet ignoring the immense pain he was in and used the writhing to guide his pistol fire. He slammed the trigger as quick as he could, emptying the few bullets left in his magazine where Marshall generally was.

* * *

Marshall was going to stand up and fire again when there was a sudden rain of bullets close by, forcing him to quickly run to his right. He returned fire while moving his bullets arcing across the room towards Valentino, but it seemed that he was adjusting to his stand very quickly as the tentacles stopped the bullets.

He dropped back behind cover and quickly reloaded his pistol, throwing stealth and caution to the wind, and it seemed Valentino was doing the same based on the noises coming from the other side of the room. Marshall took the few seconds to try and figure out what changed, since there were still other options available. So why exactly would he give up on any semblance of stealth or tactical strategy and just fire while moving. The last bullet was rammed in the chamber and Marshall spun out of his cover with his finger already on the trigger and pressing down. The bullets sounded off at the same time again as marshall maneuvered his way to some sort of cover as Valentino kept moving.

Marshall winced as he felt a bullet graze his ear but he was able to power through the pain and to start to get his gun reloaded. Though he stopped when instead of hearing a similar sound from across the room the sound of the wooden door getting thrown open met his ears. He exploded from his cover and ran as fast as he could towards the wide open door.

Suddenly it all made sense, the reason Valentino had abandoned strategy for the wild gun show was because he was trying to work towards the door. He had pieced together that stealth wasn't going to work well when going against Marshalls stand and opted for the best possible solution.

Valentino moved as fast as he could down the alley dropping the pistol as he moved, since he had used up the three magazines he had it had no purpose. He wasn't proud of abandoning the fight, but there was no way that he was going to beat Marshall with his body falling apart like it was. If he was healthy and had any sort of prep he would be damn near unbeatable, but being held together by painkillers and having to deal with a plan made in six minutes put him at a severe disadvantage. At times like these he cursed his professionalism and the general tenants of his trade. Whenever he had a contract like this it really made him want to speak up, but he couldn't bring himself to truly care.

He rounded a corner and almost fell as his leg bucked in pain, but he managed to stumble forward instead and keep his body moving. His chest screamed in pain as more stitches tore and his shirt became more and more saturated with sticky red blood. Despite the pain he was also now intensely aware of the footsteps behind him, and as they grew closer his mind was quickly running out of possible solutions. There were a few he immediately discarded on principle but the main one that stuck out and seemed viable involved an open manhole cover about a hundred and fifty yards away. The original plan had been to throw the sniper down the manhole, get in the getaway car, and have Jett retrieve it later, but now it seemed like throwing himself down was the best option. With how compromised his body was there was a chance that this would ruin him in the long run, but it would get him away from Marshall. It was honestly a gamble he didn't like, but his options were quickly narrowing. The point of the job was to scatter the group and he had accomplished that, that meant his contract with Mortis was up. No more reason to try to carry out whatever Mortis objectives were, now he could just focus on getting the fuck out of here and recovering. He had only offered one job in payment and this was it.

He rounded a sharp corner but the footsteps from Marshall sounded closer still, and there were still seventy-two yards to go. It seemed like a mile though with how much pain his chest was in, and had to thank his pain tolerance for the fact he was still standing. He threw his arm out, ignoring the pain that motion caused, snagged the handle and pulled it down behind him with a loud crash. Sixty more yards to go.

The footsteps slowed for a second as he assumed Marshall had to dodge the debris but quickly picked their pace up again as Valentino rounded another corner and could finally see the open manhole cover. It was still far enough that it was going to be close, but he might make it. He was counting down the yards and forcing himself to set a quicker pace despite the pain in his leg and chest. His mental count down finally reached zero and with little hesitation he dropped himself into the sewer. The water splashed all over his clothes but he ignored it and plowed forward, silently thankful Marshall hadn't fired. He guessed it was because he hadn't reloaded, since he knew that he wouldn't have gotten away if Marshall had fired.

* * *

Marshall stopped his run and stared at the open manhole cover with a vague feeling of annoyance, mostly at the fact that he hadn't reloaded his gun in order to incapacitate him. He had wanted to remove a player from the board as they got closer to whatever Mortis had planned for the end, but it seemed as though Valentino had a different objective. Par for the course when it came to professional hitmen, they finish the job and after that they are back on the market. The fact that Valentino had stopped fighting him and ran meant that the contract hadn't been to kill him specifically. He calmly pulled out his gun and started to methodically reload as he turned away from the manhole cover.

His ear was still bleeding which was definitely annoying but nothing he couldn't handle and work through. The leg was still a definite issue along with how his ribs as both continued to ache and throb with every intense movement. The painkillers kept him functioning and more would probably numb the pain completely but he couldn't risk setting his aim off. Aside from the pain there was a much more pressing issue; Where were Joy and Seth?

Joy hadn't been that far behind him as he had cut towards the perch and she hadn't seemed injured in any way that would affect her ability to run. Seth had been behind Joy when he had started running so the fact that neither had made it to him didn't leave many alternative answers. Now he had to work backwards and figure out where exactly the split up had occurred. He wished he had paid more attention on the way here but he had tunnelvision on where he had noticed the sniper's perch. He had assumed that removing the long range threat in the fight would open greater options. That must have been the trap, but that raised the question of how exactly they would split the group up.

He rounded one more corner and made it back where his firefight with Valentino had started. He scanned the walls and area around the alley trying to pick up any other details before turning around, trying to get an idea of what he could see from the perch Valentino had used. He figured that there were about three parking lots, the road, ten or eleven roof's, and the warehouses. He wasn't able to definitively determine if that was the warehouse where John had run to, but since the perch was looking in that direction he had to assume that something was in that direction. It wouldn't make sense to leave the perch and then travel in the same direction you had fired unless there was some purpose, even if it was just a getaway vehicle he had to work off the assumption that there was something that way.

* * *

Seth let out a breath as he continued to work his way around the fairly empty lot, making sure that he knew the distance between all the available cover. He knew that it was best if he could work quickly, but he also knew that he had to actually win this fight. That meant that everything needed to be in his benefit since, based on his last few fights, he needed every single advantage possible. So his goal was to have a solid amount of cover to both protect him and make it difficult for 『BALLROOM BLITZ』to be taken out early.

That was issue number two; he had no idea what his opponents stands were. He could guess that the guys stand wasn't a physical powerhouse based on how it failed to knock out Joy, but that didn't mean it's ability wasn't dangerous. The girl was also an issue since all he knew was that her stand had to at least be strong in order to not be moved by Joy, or that could also be an ability. In all honesty he would rather be able to observe longer and figure out their abilities before engaging, but he didn't have the time. Mostly because he had no idea where Marshall or John was at this point, and he assumed they both had issues to deal with at this point. It didn't make sense for Joy to get kidnaped unless the plan had been to scatter them.

He shook his head, tightened his wrist brace with a deep exhale, and gave one final look over the lot. His injuries were definitely a large detriment in this fight, but his stand could let him work around that. He mentally went over all the facts and measurements he knew of the area and ran through a few small hypothetical scenarios about his opponents' stands, and piecing together whatever their abilities may be. The males stand wasn't physically strong but he had no idea what it's ability was, and the female had some sort of ability that was related to the ground. That conclusion was based entirely off what he saw when Joy tried to pull her.

He couldn't deny that a fairly large part of him was excited to fight an opponent in a situation where he actually had some preparation and a chance to not be completely crushed. It wasn't that he cared about winning so much, it was more so the embarrassment of getting his ass handed to him in basically every fight so far. Entirely a factor of his large ego. He was also aware that the stakes were a fair amount higher than just his ego. He had to work off the assumption that he had absolutely no backup and that all of luck was against him. Though to be fair he had been getting screwed by lady luck or whatever this entire bizarre adventure. From the damn beginning, to getting blown up, getting mauled by Priest, and then further decimated by whoever the guy that phased was. It was high time that he got a chance to beat the shit out of somebody else.

* * *

-STAND STATS- 『LIVING COLOUR』

User: Ziti Valentino

Strength:D

Speed: D

Range: D

Durability: C

Precision: C

Potential: A

『LIVING COLOUR』is a writhing mass of tentacles that extend out from chest and back of Valentino. The tentacles reach out towards the nearest person and change color based on the strongest emotions around. When they change color it can force nearby people to feel greater amounts of the target emotion, anger becomes uncontrollable rage. The other effect is that Valentino gains some of the traits and minor skills that come from the emotion. The ability as a whole is referred to as "Cult of Personality"

Ziti Valentino is an Italian born hitman/mercenary who has done work for various criminal groups all over the world, but the most common employer was an Italian crime group. However that group was eventually consumed and decimated by a new group called Passione. This resulted in him being ousted from Italy due to Passione blocking him from getting jobs. As more and more jobs disappeared he eventually grew desperate enough to take a chance to enter into the world that Passione inhabited. He acts according to his contracts and obeys them to the exact letter, but once they are fulfilled he makes himself open on the market again.


End file.
